Itronics Reports 2016 First Half
Total Revenues and Updates
Operations Expansion and
Diversification Progress
RENO, NV--(Marketwired - September
13, 2016) - Itronics Inc. (OTC PINK:
ITRO), a diversified fertilizer and
silver producing green technology
company, today announced sales
results and summarized its
operations and diversification
progress for the six months ended
June 30, 2016. Total first half
sales decreased 23 percent on a 23
percent decrease in fertilizer
sales, a 10 percent increase in
silver sales, and a 9 percent
increase in photo services sales.
Total Revenues for the 6 months
ended June 30, 2016 were $968,000
compared to $1,256,000 in the same
period in 2015, a decrease of 23
percent. GOLD'n GRO fertilizer sales
volume decreased by 27 percent, but
revenues were only down 23 percent
due to a shift in product mix. The
decline in sales was due to heavy
rains in our California markets
during the first quarter and a
reduction in fertilizer purchases by
nut tree growers due to an almost 50
percent reduction in the farm prices
for almonds and English walnuts.
Silver sales increased 10 percent.
Photo Services increased 9 percent
due to a 12 percent increase in
spent silver-bearing photoliquids
received. Silver content of those
liquids was the same as the 2015
first half and is now in the
unprocessed photo liquid inventory
for future recovery.
Itronics is aggressively advancing
development of its portfolio of new
"Zero Waste" technologies whose
objective is to create non-seasonal
sales and to diversify sales by
extending its existing technologies
to new applications. The focus of
these technology extensions is on
processing materials that contain
silver and other precious metals.
Early in the third quarter the
Company announced that the 5 times
pilot leach plant scale-up is
nearing completion. The new leaching
technology has advanced to the point
that a fourth product, elemental
sulfur, is now being recovered.
Removal of sulfur increases the
capacity of the silver refining
furnaces.
A melting campaign to develop
e-scrap refining procedures, to
determine quantities that can be
processed, and to evaluate the
recovery of gold, palladium, and
other metals from the e-scrap is
making progress. We are now
producing bullion which will be
analyzed to obtain quantitative
metal content information as the
work progresses. This work is
demonstrating that economically
meaningful amounts of e-scrap can be
processed by the refining furnaces,
which is a very positive development
and means that e-scrap recycling may
now be feasible for Itronics.
2016 First Half Sales Results
Unaudited Revenues for the second
quarter, and 6 months ended June 30,
2016 together with comparative
figures for 2015 are presented
below:

Operational Developments
One of the Company's fundamental
strengths is its ability to invent,
build, and operate green "zero
waste" technology to completely
convert certain categories of
hazardous waste materials into cash
through the production and sale of
commercial goods. The Company is
using this creative ability to
diversify its operations by
developing a portfolio of core "zero
waste" technology extensions to
establish year-round non-seasonal
sales in new markets. The focus of
these technology extensions is on
processing materials that contain
silver and other precious metals.
GOLD'n GRO fertilizers.
The Company has identified a
potential new environmental benefit
that may be obtained by using GOLD'n
GRO fertilizers. Based on
experience, the Company has observed
that the non-nutrient metals
cadmium, lead, and mercury are not
soluble in the GOLD'n GRO
fertilizers. Vegetable growers have
a need to minimize uptake of cadmium
from the soil by vegetable crops.
The Company's distributor is
performing field tests that are
demonstrating that one of the GOLD'n
GRO fertilizers is able to reduce
cadmium uptake from high cadmium
content soil by certain vegetable
crops. Field testing is continuing
and includes some changes in
fertilization procedures that are
believed to be necessary for the
program to work. Plans for
introducing the new fertilizer
application and recommended changes
in fertilization procedures are
being developed by our distributor
for introduction to its customers.
Over time, cadmium levels have
increased in agricultural soils,
leading to increases in cadmium
uptake by crops. Cadmium build up in
agricultural soils is occurring
worldwide and is especially
important for vegetables and field
grains. Cadmium has no known
nutritional value to humans or
plants, and it is known to be a
health hazard for humans. Minimizing
cadmium uptake by vegetables and
field grains is desirable to
minimize its presence in the human
diet.
Silver Production. The
Company is now conducting its next
refining campaign which includes
incorporating ground up personal
computer circuit board scrap
(e-waste) to provide quantitative
data that can be used to evaluate
the feasibility of refining e-scrap
to recover its copper, silver, gold,
palladium, and possibly its tin
content. This work is on-going.
The FeLix, SuLix leaching technology
pilot operation five times scale up
is being completed. The pilot
circuit is now operational at its
previous scale. The expanded pilot
leaching plant is expected to be
fully operational in October.
An elemental sulfur powder recovery
step is being developed for the
process so that the sulfur can be
recovered for use in GOLD'n GRO
fertilizers or for sale. Recovery of
elemental sulfur is producing a
significant improvement in leach
process efficiency which will
further increase refining capacity
by reducing the amount of silver
concentrate delivered to the
refinery, while retaining all of the
silver contained in the starting
solids.
As of late August, the new leach
tank was delivered and plumbing
installed and some operational
testing completed. A custom designed
hot water tank is being constructed,
finalization of the heat control
system is underway, and final
electrical work is underway.
The new vapor recovery system has
been installed and tested. Liquids
produced by the recovered vapor will
be used in the photochemical
processing operation.
E-scrap processing feasibility
study. In the second quarter
2015 Itronics announced that it had
started a feasibility study to
determine whether e-scrap (personal
computer circuit boards) processing
can be integrated into the new
refining operation. Significant
progress is being made and minimum
quantities needed for economic
viability have been identified and
are now being tested in the refining
process.
The Company is gathering
quantitative processing information
to determine the operating
parameters needed to recover
commercially meaningful amounts of
copper, silver, gold, palladium, and
possibly tin from e-scrap.
Sufficient work has been completed
so that the Company is able to
estimate the amount of personal
computer circuit board scrap that it
will require to support minimum
scale commercial operation. Personal
computer circuit board supply
discussions are underway with a
northern Nevada computer services
company that disassembles discarded
personal computers and sorts the
contents for sale to recyclers. The
economics of a supply arrangement
are being evaluated.
KAM-Thio Process Development.
Laboratory tests conducted by the
Company have demonstrated that
KAM-Thio has the ability to leach
silver from the silver bearing glass
slag generated by the Company's
silver refinery. The tests have also
demonstrated that KAM-Thio liquid is
stable in the leaching application.
Independent laboratory tests have
demonstrated that KAM-Thio is able
to neutralize the cyanide contained
in spent cyanide solution generated
by gold-silver leaching.
The amount of KAM-Thio required to
neutralize cyanide is in a range
appropriate for leaching gold and
silver from ore. The next step for
KAM-Thio technology development is
to conduct a series of tests on
silver-gold ore samples to measure
the silver-gold leaching
capabilities of KAM-Thio. The
Company plans to proceed with this
work once the expanded pilot
leaching circuit is operational and
the e-scrap processing feasibility
study is nearer to completion.
Zinc Flue Dust Process
Development. An Itronics
press release dated March 17, 2015
announced a technical breakthrough
by successfully testing electro
winning as a process to recover
metallic zinc powder from zinc
enriched liquids that are produced
by leaching zinc oxide from zinc
bearing flue dust. The innovative
zinc recycling technology Itronics
is developing is expected to
eliminate the waste completely by
converting all components to
saleable goods (a new "Zero Waste
Technology). The process being
developed may use up to 40 percent
less electrical energy compared to
conventional zinc refining. The
potential energy savings would be a
strong economic driver for the
project. This work was put on hold
in the second half of 2015 while
higher priority projects are being
completed.
Battery Recycling Evaluation:
The Company is studying the
potential use of the electricity
generating contents of silver
batteries and "non-rechargeable"
alkaline batteries as a source of
raw material for use in
manufacturing the GOLD'n GRO
fertilizers and for silver
production. Once the Company has
completed the testing and start-up
of e-scrap refining, it will
evaluate processing of silver oxide
batteries which have to be crushed
or ground up prior to introduction
into the refining furnace.
Processing silver oxide batteries
would increase the silver feed to
the refinery and would be
non-seasonal.
The alkaline batteries contain
potassium, zinc, and manganese. The
potassium and zinc are recoverable
using Itronics' leaching technology
and are raw materials needed for
manufacturing GOLD'n GRO
fertilizers. The manganese remains
in the solid residue from leaching.
In the second quarter a decision was
made to begin laboratory evaluation
to develop leaching technology to
solubilize manganese. The work is
progressing with the lab work being
performed on a "time availability"
basis.
Auric Fulstone Project.
An Itronics press release dated
January 20, 2015 announced that its
subsidiary Whitney & Whitney, Inc.
has identified surface high grade
zinc-lead-silver mineralization at
its Auric Gold & Minerals Fulstone
copper-gold exploration project.
Within the Auric Fulstone project
area, the Company has discovered
surface high grade zinc, lead, and
silver mineralization that contain
anomalous molybdenum in a large area
that is geochemically anomalous for
zinc. It has also discovered high
grade copper mineralization that
contains anomalous gold and
molybdenum in a separate area that
is anomalous for copper. Discovery
of the potential for significant
zinc, lead, silver, and molybdenum
mineralization increases the
economic attractiveness of the
project by adding potentially
significant near surface zinc, lead,
silver, and molybdenum values to the
over-all copper and gold values that
are expected to be identified as the
project is explored. The Company is
evaluating options for developing
this project and has been discussing
joint venture development with
potentially interested parties.
About Itronics
Headquartered in Reno, Nevada,
Itronics Inc. is a "Creative Green
Technology" Company which produces
GOLD'n GRO specialty liquid
fertilizers, silver bullion, and
silver-bearing glass. It owns a
large Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG)
mineral property (the Auric Fulstone
Project) in the prolific Yerington
Copper Mining District in
northwestern Nevada. Within the
Auric Fulstone project area, the
Company has discovered surface high
grade zinc, lead, and silver
mineralization that contain
anomalous molybdenum in a large area
that is geochemically anomalous for
zinc. It has also discovered high
grade copper mineralization that
contains anomalous gold and
molybdenum in a separate area that
is anomalous for copper. 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 use of
metals and minerals and by doing
this maximizes sustainability.
Through its subsidiary, Itronics
Metallurgical, Inc., Itronics is the
only company with a fully permitted
"Beneficial Use Photochemical,
Silver, and Water Recycling" plant
in the United States that converts
100 percent of the spent
photoliquids into GOLD'n GRO liquid
fertilizers, silver bullion, and
silver bearing glass. This is
internationally recognized award
winning "Zero Waste" Technology. The
Company is developing a portfolio of
environmentally compatible "Zero
waste" processing and mining
technologies. Itronics has received
numerous domestic and international
awards that recognize its ability to
successfully use chemical science
and engineering to create and
implement new environmentally clean
recycling and fertilizer
technologies.
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 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_lawn-garden?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=GOLD%27n+GRO&node=2972638011.
Follow Itronics on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/itronicsinc and on
Twitter at twitter.com/itronicsinc.
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
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