WI Environmental Signs Agreement With South African Company

SEATTLE, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- WI Environmental, the heavy metals remediation expert based on Whidbey Island, Wash., today announced an agreement with South Africa's African Alternative Technologies, granting the company exclusive sales and distribution rights for its trademarked XR-88 remediation product in South Africa. The Cape Town-based utility-scale renewable energy developer will use the XR-88 system to clean up acid mine drainage created by years of mining. WI Environmental will produce XR-88 in the United States for export to South Africa.

"Our XR-88 system encapsulates the heavy metals and poisons found in acid mine drainage, turning them benign and inert," says Tim Wandell, WI Environmental's founder and president. "Besides giving us a chance to work with a really innovative company in African Alternative Technologies, this will be our first opportunity to address this particular pollution source, which is a worldwide problem. We can make a big difference here."

Acid mine drainage is the flow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines, posing one of mining's most serious threats to water. Much acid mine discharge also contains dangerous levels of nickel and copper, along with lead, cadmium, zinc, and chromium. There are as many as 500,000 abandoned mines with acid drainage problems in the U.S. according to the Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. Washington's Dept. of Natural Resources reports many of Washington's 3,800 abandoned mines have acid drainage problems.

African Alternative Technologies (AATec), a utility-scale renewable energy developer based in South Africa and operating throughout the Southern African Development Community, plans to develop electricity storage systems, using the many disused mineshafts throughout the country to house the new power systems.

"First we have to get ahead of the acid mine drainage problem which is becoming a very serious environmental issue in the northern part of South Africa," says Eric Mair, AATec's research and development director. "That is threatening the very existence of the city of Johannesburg, so enter WI Environmental."

This is the second major international licensing agreement for WI Environmental is as many weeks. The company signed a similar exclusive XR-88 licensing agreement Aug. 25 with China's Shenzhen Waste Management Company to clean up heavy metals, poisons and hexavalent chromium, a toxic byproduct of manufacturing in Hunan Province.

In July, WI Environmental's XR-88 passed a critical Washington state test, showing it is not harmful to fish or aquatic life. Testing earlier this spring showed the efficacy of the company's system in removing heavy metals, including copper, lead and zinc, from stormwater runoff and pressure wash water in samples taken from a Seattle boatyard.

WI Environmental is the heavy metals remediation expert that can bring any contaminated site into total compliance with state and federal laws, using its innovative, trademarked XR-88 process. WI Environmental, established in 2008, is a subsidiary of Wandell Industries.

African Alternative Technologies is a utility-scale renewable energy developer based in South Africa and operating throughout the Southern African Development Community. Its model encourages local economic development by facilitating community ownership of the means to exploit local natural resources and providing the community with food and energy security as well as economic growth.

For more information, visit www.wienvironmental.com.

SOURCE WI Environmental