Itronics announces option to purchase manufacturing facility

Wabuska, Nevada, facility provides land, buildings and rail service to support large-scale commercial expansion.

Itronics Inc., a diversified zinc fertilizer and silver producing company based in Reno, Nevada, has announced that it has acquired an exclusive six-month option that can be extended an additional six months if needed to purchase a manufacturing facility in Wabuska, Nevada.

“This is a long-term strategic site acquisition for commercial expansion of Itronics' unique portfolio of ‘Zero Waste Technologies,’” says John Whitney, president of the company.

Primary among these technologies are the new hydrometallurgical processes for leaching iron (FeLix Process), zinc (ZinLix Process) and sulfur (SuLix Process) for use in the production of Gold’n Gro micronutrient fertilizers and high silver content concentrates for e-scrap refining.

The company says it does not have enough room at its Reno manufacturing facility to set up and operate complete prototype processing circuits to develop engineering data to support the construction of commercial scale operating units. The Wabuska location provides adequate space to expand and continue developing these technologies to large commercial scale.

A high priority for Itronics is to perform the pilot scale testing using the ZinLix process to convert zinc flue dust to provide a low-cost source of zinc for Gold’n Gro zinc micronutrient fertilizer manufacturing, the ability to ship these fertilizers in bulk by rail throughout the United States and to produce zinc and byproduct metals, including silver and gold. The company also plans to expand the FeLix and SuLix processes to handle large quantities of precious-metal-bearing precipitates that will be produced by commercial use of the KAM-Thio technology at silver/gold mine sites. The silver recovered from these precipitates will be used to support the expansion of e-scrap refining. The Wabuska site is suitable for installation of a large commercial scale e-scrap processing operation and for installation of operations to refine precious metals and base metals recovered, at a scale required by the processing and recycling operations, Itronics says.

The site is already zoned for fertilizer manufacturing, chemical manufacturing and foundry operations, and special use permits will be required for specific operations, according to the company. The facility is on 48 acres, has five buildings with 54,000 square feet under roof, has six dry product silos and two vertical liquid tanks and is adjacent to a rail siding.

Zinc flue dusts are fine powders and can be delivered in rail hopper cars and stored in the product silos. The product silos are fully equipped, including a conveyor system to transport the zinc flue dust powder into one of the existing buildings on-site.

The exclusive purchase option also includes more than 8 acre feet of water rights. Two water wells are on-site, along with a lined fresh water pond and a lined process water pond with active permits. Site infrastructure includes electric power and natural gas, the company says.

The Wabuska site, located about 75 miles southeast of Reno, is about 12 miles north of Yerington, Nevada, on the north side of the Yerington copper mining district, with its large undeveloped copper deposits, and about 10 miles east of the company’s Fulstone copper, zinc, silver, gold, iron and industrial mineral exploration property, also in Nevada.

“The Wabuska site is strategically located and is already configured and zoned for uses that are a perfect fit for expansion of Itronics breakthrough ‘Zero Waste’ technologies at commercial scale,” Whitney says. "We are pleased that the seller has been willing to work with Itronics to make this $1.6 million purchase option possible. We are also pleased and excited to be able to expand our technology operations at commercial scale at a highly desirable strategic location in northern Nevada.”

Itronics says it plans to use the exclusive option period to complete validation of water rights, special use permit requirements and other regulatory issues that will need to be assumed with purchase of the property. The company will also begin detailed planning for occupying the property within a period that will be defined in part by special use permit requirements and the elapsed time required to obtain such permits.

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