Itronics to test centrifuge technology for its hydromet processes

Reno, Nevada-based Itronics Inc., which produces Gold’n Gro zinc fertilizers and silver products and develops green technology, says it has entered into an agreement to rent, with an option to purchase, a centrifuge that will be used in its hydrometallurgical processes. The company says it has obtained funding to purchase the machine if the testing shows it will work for its hydromet applications.

The hydromet (leaching) processes produce what the company describes as the high-silver-content concentrate used in Itronics’ e-scrap refining process.

The leaching operations are a production bottleneck for the company because of the length of time required to separate the leaching liquid from the residual silver-bearing solids using standard filtration methods. Itronics says it takes about two months to perform the liquid/solid separations for both process steps. The company says it plans to use centrifuge technology to replace the filter press, resolving the bottleneck by shortening the process to less than a week.

Itronics says it expects to be able to use the centrifuge technology for the FeLix (iron), SuLix (sulfur) and ZinLix (zinc) leaching processes and in KAM-Thio silver/gold mine applications.

Laboratory centrifuge studies have been ongoing and have provided the technical information needed to specify a suitable type of centrifuge for this operation, according to the company, which says it expects to begin working with the centrifuge in early August.

The scale-up of the company’s FeLix and SuLix leaching technology pilot operation is fully operational for use for batch leaching.  It is being used as a pilot-scale batch operation to separately leach iron and sulfur from the low-grade silver concentrate Itronics produces in its photoliquid desilvering operation. This pilot plant supplies the high-silver-content concentrates required by the e-scrap refining operations.

The company says it is acquiring a 48acre site with 54,000-square-feet of buildings at Wabuska, Nevada, so it can move the hydrometallurgy leaching operations to this site. The site allows Itronics to expand to the scale that will be required for commercial operations. 

The hydromet technology is expected to lower the operating costs of the KAM-Thio silver/gold mine recovery technology and to make it possible to process zinc-bearing flue dusts and other zinc-bearing powders to recover the zinc and to convert the nonzinc residuals into saleable products, Itronics says.  The company says