Itronics Inc. (ITRO), is a Northern Nevada headquartered green technology development company that is taking one of the most toxic liquids produced in the U.S., spent silver-bearing photographic liquids, and recycling/converting 100% of it into eleven different formulas of liquid fertilizers, and into silver production. In addition, the Itronics team’s ongoing research and development has created new applications for their proprietary technology in harvesting precious resources from other waste streams, including tons of e-scrap and mining tailings!
Itronics is the only enterprise in the world that can do what they do. The company’s Northern Nevada production facility is the only fully-permitted “beneficial use” plant in the U.S. that converts 100% of spent photoliquids into resalable products. In the late 1980s fish were dying in the Truckee River. It had been determined photoliquid waste was being discharged into the Public Owned Treatment Works by photograph processing enterprises, overwhelming the water treatment plant with silver and ending up in the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake. This problem was presented to Dr. John Whitney along with a sample of the photoliquid waste. Dr. Whitney invented a process to recycle/convert this waste. He has been acknowledged as the man who saved the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake! After several years of R & D and thousands of dollars invested, the recycle/conversion technology Dr. Whitney invented was approved for commercial production.
May 18, 1999 it was announced that Itronics Metallurgical, Inc. had invested $1 million in a 35,000 sq. ft. plant to convert 20,000–60,000 gal/month of used photochemicals into 5–10,000 oz. of 99.9999% pure silver and 30-70,000 gallons of the company’s Gold’nGro liquid fertilizer. At that stage in history the 100 million gal of photographic waste generated annually represented a significant percentage of all US toxic industrial waste.
The e-scrap waste stream is a more recent challenge facing the world. Tons of computer towers, smart phones, tablets, etc. are discarded by individuals and companies with each new upgrade or capability advance. In 2016 Itronics’ new five times scale up pilot leaching reactor was completed, and the Company succeeded in creating a new method for refining e-scrap to produce silver bullion that contains copper, gold, and palladium as saleable metals, and tin for which Itronics is securing buyers. This leaching technology is a “zero waste” process as all of the feed material is converted to useable products. Their technology is both ‘cost reducing’ and ‘energy saving’ for Itronics and is environmentally “green” because it recovers materials for sale that were previously wasted. The bullion is technically a “high tin content” silver bronze, so the tin is a component of the silver bronze alloy. The leaching and refining technologies are proving to be a significant new line of business in recovering what could be more waste going into a landfill.
Doing it the Nevada collaboration way, Itronics entered into an agreement to purchase personal computer circuit boards from a northern Nevada computer services company, Disability Resources, Inc. New2U Computers, refurbishes used computer equipment donated by local businesses and individuals in the northern Nevada Community. New2U disassembles discarded personal computers which cannot be repaired and sorts the components for sale to recyclers. New2U Computers provides an on-the job training program for individuals with disabilities, including disabled veterans, through its Employment Development Program. New2U Computers recently received a grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeves Foundation to purchase customized work benches that will be used for computer disassembly by job trainees. You talk about sustainability….this is making the most of human resources working to the best of their capabilities to salvage and put back to work precious metals that would otherwise be discarded into our landfills.
Itronics made its first sale of silver bullion Q1 of 2017. Silver bullion sales are providing a growing non-seasonal sales component to offset the season and weather influenced variability of its GOLD’n GRO fertilizer sales. The Company continues to produce silver from photographic liquids needed for GOLD’n GRO fertilizer manufacturing and has a sizable backlog of silver-bearing material for refining. Eighteen months ago the Company produced its first 1.5 ounce button of Silver bullion from e-scrap. Recently the refinery poured its first 500 ounce bar of silver bullion from e-scrap and has since made a shipment of 500 ounce bars to its finish refiner! Itronics represents another outstanding example of a “Made in NEVADA” company. For more information on this company go to Itronics.com
