Press Releases

Abakan Enters the Massive Canadian Oil Sands Market

May 04, 2012

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Due to the prevalent favorable conditions to set up operations in Alberta, Canada, Abakan Inc.’s (OTCQB: ABKI) Board of Directors has decided to locate a collaborative research and development center for wear resistant materials in Alberta, Canada. There are numerous reasons for this important decision, some of which are:

  1. Proximity to critical markets for our products.
  2. The outstanding opportunities for world-class collaborative research and development in Alberta fostered by the Alberta government through the Alberta Innovates system for innovation.
  3. The ability to collaborate with sophisticated research and development facilities funded by the Alberta government in collaboration with major Canadian oil sands companies
  4. The availability of talented technical staff and skilled labor backed by quality institutions to train future employees.
  5.  Alberta and Canada’s economic growth potential combined with highly favorable export financing and trade support

Upon initiation of Alberta operations under subsidiary MTC Corporation (Mesocoat Technologies Canada Corporation), Abakan will collaborate with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures’ (AITF) advanced materials team and infrastructure. MTC Corporation will leverage Alberta’s world-class research institutes to reduce technical execution risk and accelerate the development, validation, and market entry of MesoCoat’s revolutionary, low cost and high performance nanocomposite materials and high productivity cladding process into the oil sands, mining and mineral processing industries in Alberta and elsewhere.

This new venture expands upon Abakan’s current market focus in Upstream Oil and Gas, where the Oil Sands and mining markets represent maintenance and overhaul sales cycles that are ongoing and countercyclical to the large capital project outlays typical of the sour oil and gas exploration and production materials needs being addressed at the company’s Euclid, Ohio facilities.

The Alberta location offers significant growth opportunities for MesoCoat; with announced capital investments in the oil sands industry due to triple production in the next four years markets for wear resistant materials are also expected to grow proportionately from $350M/year to over $1B/year. MesoCoat’s CermaClad technology offers the highest productivity and lowest life cycle cost of any application technology in the market today. MesoCoat’s CermaClad technology offers the ability to produce high-quality weld overlays 15-40X faster, and with dramatically improved microstructures and performance compared to legacy weld overlay processes. MTC Corporation’s Alberta development activities will accelerate the commercial readiness of MesoCoat’s low cost nanocomposite overlay materials, which in laboratory testing have shown 3X lower wear rate than current available overlay products at comparable cost structures.

About Abakan Inc.
Abakan, Inc. is a publicly listed acquisition company that provides critical financial, management and intellectual support to innovative companies and technologies for realizing their true market potential. Abakan invests in companies that have developed transformational technologies on the cusp of commercialization. Abakan is the largest shareholder in MesoCoat and Powdermet, each of which is a nanotechnology material science company involved in technology development and commercialization. MesoCoat is focused on metal asset protection and life extension by providing advanced wear and corrosion solutions, while Powdermet is focused on metal formulations as well as advanced energy management solutions. MesoCoat was recently recognized by Forbes as one of ‘The Most Promising American Companies’ and was the highest ranked material science and nanotechnology company. MesoCoat is also the recipient of four prestigious R&D; 100 awards, a Technology Innovation Program Award (TIP) for 100 year life coatings by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), two NorTech Innovation Awards for breakthrough materials and surface engineering solutions, and several other federal and state grants and awards. Powdermet is a nationally recognized nanotechnology and advanced materials research and development organization that has won approximately 100 federal and state awards, along with being a recipient of several technology innovation awards like R&D; 100 and NorTech Innovation award.

Forward-Looking Statements:
A number of statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties including technological obsolescence, market acceptance of future products, competitive market conditions, and the sufficiency of capital resources. The actual results Abakan may achieve could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. Abakan encourages the public to read the information provided here in conjunction with its most recent filings on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Abakan’s public filings may be viewed at www.sec.gov.

Abakan Inc.
Robert Miller, Chief Executive Officer
Phone: +1-786-206-5368
Email: [email protected]
www.abakaninc.com

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