Itronics Announces New Silver-Gold Mine Technology Developments;
Could Increase Cash Flow Year-Round and Increase Mine Production
RENO, NV--(Marketwired - Dec 12, 2013) - Itronics Inc.
(PINKSHEETS: ITRO), a growing and diversified fertilizer, silver,
and minerals producer, today provided a technology update for new
applications to improve silver-gold mine recoveries and operating
results.
The new work could: (1) improve cash flow issues because of the
seasonality of selling fertilizer; (2) provide mines an alternative
to the use of cyanide, which could increase the production of
valuable metals from the mine while also assisting in mine safety
and (3) diversify Itronics' products mix. Itronics has won
worldwide environmental awards for its ability to take photowastes,
a toxic waste, extract out valuable silver and other metals, and to
turn the resulting de-silvered liquid into award winning
fertilizers sold mostly in the nation's breadbasket in Central
California.
In a press release dated August 14, 2013 Itronics updated its
plans for applications for silver-gold mines that have a silver to
gold ratio exceeding 4 to 1 in the ore. Going forward these
will be referred to as "silver-gold" mines.
The Company is reviewing potential uses for our de-silvered
photoliquids in silver-gold ore processing where the de-silvered
liquids would be used to neutralize cyanide tailings or to replace
cyanide. The Company is reviewing historical data from silver
and gold mining reports from the middle 1800s onward which provides
information that may be useable to improve operating results at
existing silver-gold mines that use cyanidation recovery technology
and for silver-gold mines that would use cyanidation recovery
technology and are in the planning and development stage. The
plan being implemented envisions that Itronics' already proven
silver recovery technologies would be modified to fit specific
silver-gold mine requirements. Application modifications would
be tailored to fit the operational needs of individual mines.
The potential benefits of the Company's technologies in
silver-gold mines are (1) improved silver and gold recovery, (2)
reduced cyanide consumption and related costs, (3) environmentally
attractive cyanide tailings remediation, and (4) potential for
remediation and recycling of certain mine waste streams. Cost
savings and improvement in recovery are equivalent to mine
expansion for which the value can be calculated, providing a basis
for measuring the value of the technologies at specific mine
operations.
In the third quarter of 2013 the Company began laboratory and
small pilot scale test work to evaluate whether some of the
information in the historical published literature could be
utilized to improve the Company's refining process in anticipation
of developing specific mine applications. In August a new
refining process for recovering silver from the Company's
silver-iron-sulfur concentrates (the solids resulting from the
photoliquid de-silvering process) was formulated. This new
approach has been under small pilot scale testing since
then. As of early December the new process has been working,
with the last test melts performing according to
expectations. The Company is now going to start the scale up
to commercial size melts, work that should be completed during the
first quarter of 2014.
Benefits of the new process are improved first pass recovery,
elimination of an intermediate processing step that is now required
to achieve full recovery, and a reduction in glass slag production.
The result is a significant improvement in silver refining
economics and productivity. A secondary benefit is that this
process will be useable for refining a wider variety of silver
bearing materials, including products from silver-gold mines.
The Company is developing a liquid product that will be able to
neutralize cyanide, recover residual silver and gold in process
tailings that are being neutralized, and that will be
environmentally compatible. The Company believes that
development of a liquid to neutralize cyanide, that is safe and
easy to handle in the work place, will be attractive to many mines
and laboratories. The product should be an especially good fit
for those operations where "in plant" neutralization is desirable
for worker and environmental safety.
Most of the theoretical work to create this product is
complete. The liquid will essentially be a low analysis
fertilizer that can be registered in Nevada. It is based on
the Company's proven fertilizer manufacturing technology which is
used to make award winning GOLD'n GRO fertilizers. In future
reports this will be referred to as the Itronics "KAM Thio"
process. The liquid is being named "KAM Thio" and may be
labeled with a fertilizer analysis.
Development of the KAM Thio process was started during the third
quarter by using the Company's de-silvered photoliquids, which are
being re-formulated as KAM Thio, to recover silver from the
Company's internally generated glass refining
slag. Preliminary results are positive with good recoveries
being achieved. This testing will be continued and will be
extended and expanded in 2014 to silver-gold mine ore and tailings
samples from Nevada silver-gold mines.
Evaluation of KAM Thio ability to neutralize cyanide will also
be started in 2014. The Company believes, based on testing it
performed on gold mill tailings in the early 1990's, that this
chemistry will be able to neutralize cyanide in contaminated
liquids and solids. In tailing neutralization it will
simultaneously recover some of the residual silver and gold that is
left in the ore, but which cannot be recovered economically with
conventional technology. The Company's initial testing on its
own internally generated glass slag is demonstrating the validity
of the earlier work and of the overall concept.
Itronics is planning to move into silver-gold mining by seeking
joint venture opportunities at existing and planned
projects. The joint ventures would be developed specifically
to adopt certain of the Company's technologies to improve operating
results at selected mine sites that the Company believes may have
ore that is amenable to application of this
technology. Initially, heap leach projects in Nevada are
preferred due to the Company's familiarity with Nevada silver-gold
deposits and Nevada environmental permitting
requirements. Planning and early stage discussion with
potentially interested parties (including permitting authorities)
for this is underway, but actual solicitation of joint venture
interest has not yet commenced.
Sales of chemical products into the Nevada mining market would
be less seasonal than fertilizer utilization. Due to strong
seasonality in the fertilizer segment, the manufacturing plant
operates at a small fraction of its single shift capacity about 6
months of the year. Additional benefits of expanding
photochemical throughput would be expansion of silver recovery,
refining, and sales and an increase in the market for Value-Added
recycling of spent silver-bearing photochemicals. Moving in
this direction should make it possible for Itronics to expand its
services in the spent silver bearing photochemical segment.
"Development of technology assets by the Company makes it
possible to capitalize on its intellectual property and technical
expertise and to create the opportunity for potentially rapid
increases in the value of those assets," said Dr. John Whitney,
Itronics President. "Moving into silver-gold mine applications
is a major development for the Company. We expect this
expansion to create many exciting new business opportunities."
About Itronics:
Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Itronics Inc. is a "Creative
Clean Technology" company that produces GOLD'n GRO liquid
fertilizers and pure silver bullion. Itronics, through its
subsidiary, Itronics Metallurgical, Inc. is the only company with a
fully permitted "Beneficial Use Photochemical, Silver, and Water
Recycling" plant in the United States that converts spent
photoliquids into pure silver and GOLD'n GRO liquid fertilizers.
The Company is developing environmentally compatible mining
technology, and is developing the Fulstone Iron Oxide Copper Gold
exploration property in Nevada.
Itronics has received numerous domestic and international awards
that recognize its ability to successfully create and implement new
environmentally clean recycling and fertilizer technologies.
The Company's environmentally friendly GOLD'n GRO liquid
fertilizers, which are extensively used in agriculture, can be used
for lawns and houseplants, and are available, along with liquid
fertilizer injectors, at the Company's "e-store" catalog at
http://goldngro.com. Its popular Silver Nevada Miner bars are
available at the Company's "e-store" catalog at
http://www.itromet.com.
VISIT OUR WEB SITE:
http://www.itronics.com
("Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains or may contain
forward-looking statements such as statements regarding the
Company's growth and profitability, growth strategy, liquidity and
access to public markets, operating expense reduction, and trends
in the industry in which the Company operates. The forward-looking
statements contained in this press release are also subject to
other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described
in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update these
forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in
risks, uncertainties or assumptions underlying or affecting such
statements, or for prospective events that may have a retroactive
effect.)
Contact: Paul Knopick 888-795-6336
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