Electronics, Glass

Itronics ships silver-copper- bearing glass produced by its e-scrap refining

Itronics Inc., Reno, Nevada, has announced that it has made its first shipment of silver-copper-bearing glass produced by its electronic scrap refining technology. The company says it also recently made its second shipment of silver bullion produced by the new e-scrap refining process.

Itronics, a fully integrated photochemical recycling company, extracts precious metals from e-scrap, including circuit board scrap. The company recovers, refines and sells pure silver bullion from the scrap stream and produces a silver-bearing glass in the refining process. The company says this is a “technology breakthrough.”

John Whitney, Itronics president, says, “Finding a buyer for the silver-copper-bearing glass is an important milestone achievement for the company. It means that the two products produced by the new e-scrap refining process are being sold, making this another operational ‘zero waste’ technology for Itronics. This is truly a technology breakthrough for us as we expand our operating zero waste technology portfolio. Currently, most of the circuit board scrap generated in the United States is exported to other countries for precious metal reclamation, providing us a significant market opportunity in Nevada and the western United States.”

The e-scrap refining technology uses silver recovered from spent photographic liquids as a collector of the metals contained in the e-scrap. Itronics says significant value is added to each ounce of silver used for e-scrap refining. The company says it believes it is the only company in the world to use this method of recovering the metals contained in the e-scrap.

Itronics Inc. refers to itself as a “creative green technology” company that produces Gold’n Gro specialty liquid fertilizers, silver bullion and silver-bearing glass. Through its subsidiary Itronics Metallurgical Inc., Itronics says it is the only company with a fully permitted “beneficial use photochemical, silver and water recycling” plant in the U.S. that converts 100 percent of spent photoliquids into Gold’n Gro liquid fertilizers, silver bullion and silver-bearing glass. It is developing a portfolio of zero waste processing and mining technologies.