Published: March 17, 2021 |

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Itronics has initiated planning for a Rock Kleen processing project to demonstrate the revolutionary technology for recovering silver, gold, copper, iron, and industrial minerals from mine tailings.

The global potential for Rock Kleen is to transform mining to an industry that provides benefits to the world by maximizing mineral sustainability without producing waste thereby providing significant positive benefits to the environment for the long-term future.

Itronics and its subsidiaries are positioned to answer the call to increase environmentally sustainable mineral use. Under the Rock Kleen processing concept, all the rock is processed to convert its components to commercial use thereby maximizing sustainability and eliminating the waste from the environment.

“The new technology has the potential to unlock an enormous amount of value from mine waste that presently either has zero value or a negative value due to environmental protection requirements. We expect that this potential economic benefit will be quantified by our demonstration projects,” said Dr. John Whitney, Itronics president.

The projects’ major objective is to create the first Rock Kleen Processing Facility to serve as a testing platform and operating unit to evaluate and demonstrate the revolutionary technology on a meaningful operating scale. A secondary objective is to generate clean construction materials for use in developing the Itronics Cleantech Materials Campus and raw materials for use in manufacturing our GOLD’n GRO fertilizers. The demonstration plant would be configured so that changes and modifications demonstrated as being desirable by small scale operation can easily be made. The ultimate arrangement of the process equipment would be made so that tailings materials from various locations could be brought in for pilot testing prior to commercial scale development at the sites where the tailings are located.

The need for a demonstration plant has been pointed out by members of the mining community that have tailings that may be candidates for application of the Rock Kleen Technology. The technology is proprietary to Itronics and has not been demonstrated on a pilot or small plant scale for actual application to process mine tailings. One purpose of the demonstration plant is to validate the economic robustness of potential projects that the internal economic modelling is showing. The economic modelling is based on actual medium scale laboratory test results, and knowledge of how the chemistry works based on Itronics’ more than 30 years experience working with various facets of the chemistry combined with more than 30 years of processing experience. 15 years of manufacturing experience, and about 15 years of experience specific to the leaching processes gained by developing technologies that will be used in the process.

The project concept is that, at the beginning, the demonstration plant can be utilized to respond to the need for small scale demonstration, while producing industrial minerals for use to support construction requirements for Itronics, and materials used in manufacturing the GOLD’n GRO fertilizers. Planning for the Cleantech Materials Campus development is being initiated simultaneous with planning for the demonstration plant which would be located at the Cleantech Materials Campus. The company believes that taking this approach will expedite development of the Cleantech Materials Campus while also moving the Rock Kleen technology forward rapidly. The Cleantech Materials Campus will be the location of expanded GOLD’n GRO fertilizer production and printed circuit board assembly refining which are integral to Itronics growth.

Itronics controls a tailings pile that is a suitable candidate for use to demonstrate the Rock Kleen Technology on a continuous operating basis. Itronics, through its subsidiary Auric Gold & Minerals, controls the Fulstone Polymetallic Gold Exploration Project which is adjacent to the former operating Minnesota mine. Some of the tailings and some of the mining waste generated by the iron mining operation are located on the Auric Fulstone mining claims and are now under the control of Auric Gold & Minerals. Historical reports indicate that the tailings contain iron, copper, and silver making them a prime candidate for processing using the Rock Kleen Technology.

Itronics technical and administrative services subsidiary, Whitney & Whitney, Inc. will be leading the project development effort beginning with the planning and engineering, to be followed by construction and early-stage operation. Whitney & Whitney has preliminary confirmation that the tailings on the claims can be removed for process development following U.S. Bureau of Land Management regulations. Whitney & Whitney has already taken two tailings samples which are being prepared for measurement and characterization. As planning and work budget is being developed, so that the company can start working on obtaining funding for this new development.

The Rock Kleen demonstration project is expected to show how the production of the various metal and mineral products recovered from the tailings materials will be accomplished. Rock Kleen operations have the potential to provide a whole new source of raw materials, not only to supply the metal industries, but also certain nutrient raw materials for the fertilizer industry, and industrial mineral materials for many industries including the construction and ceramics industries and industries that use mineral fillers. Ultimately, by adding many additional Rock Kleen projects, existing mines and tailings from previously operating mines will be the source of these new raw materials, reducing the need for mining companies to build as many new mines in the future.

“Whitney & Whitney has been focused on the development of Rock Kleen, working with two mining companies to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology on a medium scale laboratory test basis” said John Key, Whitney & Whitney vice president, Projects.

“Processing tailings available on the Auric Fulstone claims will allow for the development of operating parameters for full scale operations while providing Itronics Metallurgical, Inc. sufficient concentrate to develop final products for use in fertilizer production, printed circuit board refining and for the sales to the construction and ceramics industries. This is a major step for Rock Kleen to open the door to full scale commercial use,” added Key.

About Itronics
Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Itronics Inc. is a “Zero Waste Energy Saving Technology” company which produces GOLD’n GRO specialty liquid fertilizers, silver bullion, and silver-bearing glass. The company is an emerging critical minerals producer. The company’s goal is to achieve profitable cleantech materials technology driven organic growth in specialty GOLD’n GRO fertilizers, silver, zinc, and critical minerals. The company’s technologies maximize the recovery and uses of metals and minerals and by doing this maximize sustainability.

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