ITRONICS ADVANCES ITS ROCK KLEEN SILVER/GOLD HEAP LEACH
TAILINGS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
Major Positive Possibilities for Mining
Industry
RENO, NV
-- July 28 2020 -- InvestorsHub NewsWire
-- Itronics
Inc. (OTC:ITRO),
an emerging "Cleantech Materials" growth Company that produces
GOLD'n GRO Multi-Nutrient Fertilizers and Silver, updates its
proprietary Rock Kleen Silver/Gold Tailings Processing Technology
development which was described in detail in a press release dated
April 2, 2020.
Itronics is
announcing today that its wholly-owned technical services
subsidiary, Whitney & Whitney, Inc., has secured a contract to
advance testing on a major heap leach tailings resource that has
recoverable silver, gold, and zinc, and other base and ferrous
metals including copper, lead, nickel, manganese, and iron.
Preliminary test work completed in 2019 showed the Rock Kleen
Technology was successful in recovering these metals. The
2019 test work illustrated that a potential project existed that
could produce silver and gold, and base and ferrous metals, and
with the "cleaning" properties of removing cyanide residuals and
nitrogen by Rock Kleen make the cleaned heap leach tailings
suitable for use as industrial minerals.
"The Itronics
'Power of Zero' philosophy is focused on using 100% of resources
resulting in zero waste products. Issues related to finding a
better way to store mine waste becomes a moot point when all of the
materials become useable or salable products," stated Dr. John
Whitney, Founder and CEO of Itronics, Inc. "Legacy issues
that haunt mining companies relate to what they leave behind after
their targeted minerals can no longer support an operation.
By converting all the resource into useable or salable products and
leaving less behind, Rock Kleen will
greatly reduce the legacy issues, as what is left behind has been
cleaned of its detrimental properties."
Test work at
the Itronics Metallurgical laboratory on material from two separate
silver and gold closed heap leach tailings sites has provided
positive results in terms of neutralizing residual cyanide to below
drinking water standards and recovering nitrogen introduced by
using ammonium nitrate or urea as a blasting agent to break the
rocks in the mining process. The nitrogen component of the
cyanide is recovered by the Rock Kleen liquid and the nitrogen
introduced by blasting is also recovered by the Rock Kleen liquid,
thereby removing these potential ground water contaminants from the
rock. Once the residual cyanide and nitrogen are
removed, the rock
may be
suitable for use in site reclamation or to produce industrial
minerals for sale. These industrial minerals include crushed
rock, fine crushed rock, feldspars,
clays and
micas.
The
testing has shown that residual silver and gold are also recovered
by the Rock Kleen Liquid. Silver is preferentially recovered,
but the testing indicates that residual gold is also
recovered. In the samples tested, the gold content is at the
limits of detection and the silver values were highly variable
making quantification of the silver and gold recovery percentage
difficult. The actual metal recovered was established by
measuring the total metal content of the Rock Kleen liquid.
More testing is required related to measurements of the starting
content of the leached material and recoverability because
indications are that leach piles from different mine sites will
have significant silver and gold measurement variability as well as
variable recoverability characteristics due to differences in ore
mineralogy and metallurgy, making the metal recovery
characteristics of each site unique to that site.
The
testing has also shown that other metals are recovered by the Rock
Kleen liquid. For example, the two sets of materials that
have been tested were from heap leach operations that used the
Merrill-Crowe process to recover the silver and gold from the
cyanide solution. This process uses zinc powder to
precipitate the silver and gold from solution and the zinc is then
deposited into the leach pile. The Rock Kleen testing that
has been completed shows that the zinc is recovered by the Rock
Kleen solution. The testing has also shown that other metals
are being recovered as well. These other metals include
manganese and iron, copper, nickel, and lead. It appears from
testing that cadmium, mercury, and arsenic may be rejected by the
Rock Kleen liquid, leaving those metals in the rock in a
non-soluble form, but more testing is required to validate
this.
Whitney
& Whitney has chosen, for purposes of introducing the Rock
Kleen Tailings Processing Technology, to target silver and gold
heap leach tails previously processed using the Merrill-Crowe
silver and gold recovery system. Mines that use the
Merrill-Crowe system typically have a high silver to gold ratio and
often silver recoveries are poor, creating an opportunity for
positive economic results based on recovery of residual silver,
gold, and zinc. Some of these silver/gold heap leach
operations have more complex ore mineralogy providing an
opportunity for recovery of economic amounts of other metals as
well.
Some
silver/gold ores are enriched in manganese and iron which are known
to tie up the silver and reduce silver recoveries when using
cyanide as a leaching agent. Rock Kleen has demonstrated an ability
to recover manganese and separate the iron to release the silver
that is tied up by the manganese and iron, making the silver
recoverable.
"Lower
grade deposits mean less margin between profit and break
even. Tailings costs often can make the difference between a
go or no-go decision in terms of developing a mine," said John Key,
Vice President, Projects for Whitney & Whitney, Inc.
Whitney & Whitney markets the Rock Kleen technology for
Itronics. "When additional metals/minerals are profitably
recovered and tailings become a revenue component of the total
revenue stream instead of a major cost, potential resources that
were sub-grade ore can now become profitable to mine."
"The
mining industry is extremely concerned about the management of
tailings, especially as companies increasingly rely on large-scale
extraction of ever-lower grade ore deposits, a process that yields
large volumes of waste materials," said Pricilla Nelson, professor
of mining engineering at Colorado School of Mines a founding member
of the Tailings Center of Excellence. "Finding ways to
sustainably manage tailings is a matter of social and corporate
responsibility." She continued: "The center is going to be
interested in not just the safe disposal of mine tailings but also
what we can do with the tailings that represent new products.
The idea of creating downstream projects would bring the mining
industry more strongly into the global circular
economy."
Itronics
is taking steps to address the global circular economy through its
"Zero Waste Energy Saving" Technologies. Rock Kleen targets
maximum metal extraction and utilization of 100% of a
resource. Mining companies tend to build mines based upon the
extraction of one to three metals while discarding the rest.
Rock Kleen targets the whole resource.
Rock Kleen Advantages (From the April 2 press release
cited above.)
- Targets utilization
of 100% of the resource
- Redefines "ore" by
valuing the whole resource
- Recovers precious,
base, and ferrous metals
- Cleans the rock of
cyanide and nitrogen
- Can be used in
conjunction with currently established processing
procedures
- Cleans leached rock
to make it available for industrial minerals products
- Eliminates or reduces
capital cost of tailings storage
- Makes project
permitting easier and quicker in some cases
- Eliminates or greatly
reduces bonding requirements of heap leach tailings or mill
tailings impoundments by eliminating the need for them
"We
believe that cyanide is the best solvent to recover gold and that
Rock Kleen Technology could ultimately prove to be the best process
to remove cyanide and nitrogen from the processed rock and to
recover residual silver, gold, zinc, and other metals making the
processed rock useable for site remediation or for processing to
produce industrial minerals for sale," said Dr. Whitney. The Rock
Kleen Technology continues to advance and Whitney & Whitney,
Inc is ready to provide interested parties with preliminary
assessment of the potential for a total resource
project.
About Itronics
Headquartered in
Reno, Nevada, Itronics Inc. is an emerging Cleantech Growth Company
that uses proprietary multi-nutrient fertilizer manufacturing
technologies to produce GOLD'n GRO multi-nutrient fertilizers and
breakthrough Zero Waste Energy Saving
Technologies to
recover fertilizer ingredients, silver bullion, and silver-bearing
glass from waste streams that contain silver, gold, copper, zinc,
tin, and other metals. The Company's goal is to achieve
profitable clean technology driven organic
growth in specialty GOLD'n GRO fertilizers, silver, zinc, and
minerals. The Company's technologies maximize the recovery
and uses of metals and minerals and by doing this maximize
sustainability.
The Company's
environmentally friendly award winning GOLD'n GRO liquid
fertilizers, which are extensively used in agriculture,
can be used for lawns and houseplants, and are available at the
Company's "e-store" on Amazon.Com at https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=p_4%3AGOLD%27n+GRO.
Due to expanded
retail customer interest, GOLD'n GRO fertilizer may now be
purchased in Reno, Nevada at "Buy Nevada First Gift Shop", 4001 S.
Virginia St.
Follow Itronics on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itronicsinc
Follow Itronics on
Twitter: https://twitter.com/itronicsinc
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VISIT OUR WEB SITE: https://www.itronics.com
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("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:
John Key
(775) 689-7666
