{"id":1198323,"date":"2020-07-28T05:30:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceworld.com\/?p=59049"},"modified":"2020-07-28T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T17:58:10","slug":"itronics-advances-its-rock-kleen-silver-gold-heap-leach-tailings-process-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1198323","title":{"rendered":"Itronics Advances Its Rock Kleen Silver\/Gold Heap Leach Tailings Process Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major Positive Possibilities for Mining Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

RENO, Nevada, July 28 2020 \u2013 Itronics Inc. (OTC:ITRO<\/a>), an emerging \u201cCleantech Materials\u201d growth Company that produces GOLD\u2019n GRO Multi-Nutrient Fertilizers and Silver, updates its proprietary Rock Kleen Silver\/Gold Tailings Processing Technology development which was described in detail in a press release dated April 2, 2020.<\/p>\n

Itronics is announcing today that its wholly-owned technical services subsidiary, Whitney & Whitney, Inc., has secured a contract to advance testing on a major heap leach tailings resource that has recoverable silver, gold, and zinc, and other base and ferrous metals including copper, lead, nickel, manganese, and iron. Preliminary test work completed in 2019 showed the Rock Kleen Technology was successful in recovering these metals.\u00a0 The 2019 test work illustrated that a potential project existed that could produce silver and gold, and base and ferrous metals, and with the “cleaning\u201d properties of removing cyanide residuals and nitrogen by Rock Kleen make the cleaned heap leach tailings suitable for use as industrial minerals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Itronics ‘Power of Zero’ philosophy is focused on using 100% of resources resulting in zero waste products.\u00a0 Issues related to finding a better way to store mine waste becomes a moot point when all of the materials become useable or salable products,\u201d stated Dr. John Whitney, Founder and CEO of Itronics, Inc.\u00a0 \u201cLegacy issues that haunt mining companies relate to what they leave behind after their targeted minerals can no longer support an operation.\u00a0 By converting all the resource into useable or salable products and leaving less behind, Rock Kleen will greatly reduce the legacy issues, as what is left behind has been cleaned of its detrimental properties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Test work at the Itronics Metallurgical laboratory on material from two separate silver and gold closed heap leach tailings sites has provided positive results in terms of neutralizing residual cyanide to below drinking water standards and recovering nitrogen introduced by using ammonium nitrate or urea as a blasting agent to break the rocks in the mining process.\u00a0 The nitrogen component of the cyanide is recovered by the Rock Kleen liquid and the nitrogen introduced by blasting is also recovered by the Rock Kleen liquid, thereby removing these potential ground water contaminants from the rock.\u00a0 Once the residual cyanide and nitrogen are removed, the rock may be suitable for use in site reclamation or to produce industrial minerals for sale.\u00a0 These industrial minerals include crushed rock, fine crushed rock, feldspars, clays and micas.<\/p>\n

The testing has shown that residual silver and gold are also recovered by the Rock Kleen Liquid.\u00a0 Silver is preferentially recovered, but the testing indicates that residual gold is also recovered.\u00a0 In the samples tested, the gold content is at the limits of detection and the silver values were highly variable making quantification of the silver and gold recovery percentage difficult.\u00a0 The actual metal recovered was established by measuring the total metal content of the Rock Kleen liquid.\u00a0 More testing is required related to measurements of the starting content of the leached material and recoverability because indications are that leach piles from different mine sites will have significant silver and gold measurement variability as well as variable recoverability characteristics due to differences in ore mineralogy and metallurgy, making the metal recovery characteristics of each site unique to that site.<\/p>\n

The testing has also shown that other metals are recovered by the Rock Kleen liquid.\u00a0 For example, the two sets of materials that have been tested were from heap leach operations that used the Merrill-Crowe process to recover the silver and gold from the cyanide solution.\u00a0 This process uses zinc powder to precipitate the silver and gold from solution and the zinc is then deposited into the leach pile.\u00a0 The Rock Kleen testing that has been completed shows that the zinc is recovered by the Rock Kleen solution.\u00a0 The testing has also shown that other metals are being recovered as well.\u00a0 These other metals include manganese and iron, copper, nickel, and lead.\u00a0 It appears from testing that cadmium, mercury, and arsenic may be rejected by the Rock Kleen liquid, leaving those metals in the rock in a non-soluble form, but more testing is required to validate this.<\/p>\n

Whitney & Whitney has chosen, for purposes of introducing the Rock Kleen Tailings Processing Technology, to target silver and gold heap leach tails previously processed using the Merrill-Crowe silver and gold recovery system.\u00a0 Mines that use the Merrill-Crowe system typically have a high silver to gold ratio and often silver recoveries are poor, creating an opportunity for positive economic results based on recovery of residual silver, gold, and zinc.\u00a0 Some of these silver\/gold heap leach operations have more complex ore mineralogy providing an opportunity for recovery of economic amounts of other metals as well.<\/p>\n

Some silver\/gold ores are enriched in manganese and iron which are known to tie up the silver and reduce silver recoveries when using cyanide as a leaching agent. Rock Kleen has demonstrated an ability to recover manganese and separate the iron to release the silver that is tied up by the manganese and iron, making the silver recoverable.<\/p>\n

\u201cLower grade deposits mean less margin between profit and break even.\u00a0 Tailings costs often can make the difference between a go or no-go decision in terms of developing a mine,\u201d said John Key, Vice President, Projects for Whitney & Whitney, Inc.\u00a0 Whitney & Whitney markets the Rock Kleen technology for Itronics.\u00a0 \u201cWhen additional metals\/minerals are profitably recovered and tailings become a revenue component of the total revenue stream instead of a major cost, potential resources that were sub-grade ore can now become profitable to mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mining industry is extremely concerned about the management of tailings, especially as companies increasingly rely on large-scale extraction of ever-lower grade ore deposits, a process that yields large volumes of waste materials,\u201d said Pricilla Nelson, professor of mining engineering at Colorado School of Mines a founding member of the Tailings Center of Excellence.\u00a0 \u201cFinding ways to sustainably manage tailings is a matter of social and corporate responsibility.\u201d\u00a0 She continued: \u201cThe center is going to be interested in not just the safe disposal of mine tailings but also what we can do with the tailings that represent new products.\u00a0 The idea of creating downstream projects would bring the mining industry more strongly into the global circular economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itronics is taking steps to address the global circular economy through its \u201cZero Waste Energy Saving\u201d Technologies.\u00a0 Rock Kleen targets maximum metal extraction and utilization of 100% of a resource.\u00a0 Mining companies tend to build mines based upon the extraction of one to three metals while discarding the rest.\u00a0 Rock Kleen targets the whole resource.<\/p>\n

Rock Kleen Advantages (From the April 2 press release cited above.)<\/strong><\/p>\n