Recommended on July 16, 2001 at $0.16

Interview with John W. Whitney, President Itronics Inc.

Itronics Inc. is the world's only fully integrated photochemical recycling company. It provides photochemical waste collection services, recovers and refines silver from the photochemicals, manufactures and blends liquid fertilizers - GOLD'n GRO from the processed residual, and sells and distributes a line of liquid fertilizers developed for specific applications, such as golf and lawn turf maintenance programs, vegetables, wine grapes, citrus and evergreens.
 

To become a multi-billion dollar corporation by utilizing its unique and proprietary technologies to become the world's leading recycler of used chemicals into the fertilizer and mining markets.
 

Itronics is now expanding to commercial levels in photochemical recycling and fertilizer manufacturing and sales.
 

• Regulatory management of silver-bearing waste streams is becoming increasingly stringent due to extreme toxicity of silver to fish.
• Metal economists are predicting that silver will be in short supply for years to come.
• Itronics proprietary technology recovers 99.997% of the silver contained in used photochemicals versus 90-95% for competitors.
• Federal regulations are mandating the establishment of "buy recycled" products throughout the United States.
• Itronics proprietary technology returns the demetallized photochemical to beneficial use in fertilizer.
• Competitors incinerate or landfill their partially desilvered chemicals.
• Globally the United States is preceding other countries in environmental regulation and management.

Use of silver in 1999 was 546.8 million ounces worldwide down slightly from the previous year.  Amateur photography alone accounted for 71.4 million ounces and x-ray films accounted for 12.0 million ounces. Silver use in photographic film is increasing each year.  Digital imaging is growing but will be supplemental to conventional photography well into the future. Photobyproduct manufacturers expect conventional photography to continue for the indefinite future.

Silver Recycling

About 100  million  gallons  of  silver-bearing photobyproducts are produced annually. Environmental regulations prohibit the discharge of photochemical wastes into sanitary sewer systems or directly into the environment, however lack of technologic alternatives has made it necessary for regulatory authorities to continue to allow sewer discharge of used photochemicals.
 

Photochemicals are standardized throughout the world. There are market opportunities in every country that is large enough to provide a sufficient supply of used photochemicals, as the world population increases and the level of income in less developed countries improves, "rest of world" markets will continue to grow at above average rates.

• Market for Used Photochemicals: There are two large potential markets for which products utilizing demetallized-reconditioned photochemicals can be developed. They are:

• Silver and gold extraction chemicals for mining:

• Fertilizer products: Itronics chose to develop fertilizers first because fertilizer development can be done on a smaller scale

Since silver is a toxic substance, Itronics' proprietary technology, which totally removes silver from the waste stream and returns chemicals to beneficial use in fertilizer, provides a significant competitive edge. Itronics provides photobyproduct solution pick-up services from photochemical waste generators (hospitals, x-ray laboratories, photographic developers, and the like), special distillation equipment that reduces the volume of photowaste by 90%, and processing of the photochemicals to recover the silver and make the residual chemical solution into a liquid fertilizer with demonstrated superior properties. GOLD'n GRO fertilizer is certifiably free of hazardous heavy metal and stands out in its ability to meet new environmental regulations, such as California's Proposition 65.
 

This market is mature, but in a long-term growth phase. The urban fertilizer market is growing rapidly. The total market for fertilizers in the United States exceeds $6 billion. The urban market is in the range of $1 billion and growing. A major segment of the urban market is golf courses. Many new golf courses are being built each year to satisfy the recreational demands of an aging US population. The golf course market is being targeted for Itronics' GOLD'n GRO fertilizers. Other high value markets such as ornamentals, professional specialty growers and wine grapes are being targeted.
 

Itronics has spent more than a decade and $5.5 million perfecting its proprietary processes and obtaining the GOLD'n GRO^TM trademark for its fertilizers. Faced with high demand for its fertilizer and the ongoing production of photowaste, Itronics is in the process of changing from a small research and development firm into a large commercial processing and manufacturing company.  Additionally, the application of Itronics' thiosulfate leaching technology to the mining sector represents a strong initiative by the company to diversify its proprietary process by applying it to various industries.

A number of important milestones have been accomplished in recent months, signifying completion of the development phase:
• On January 31, 2000 the company announced today that its subsidiary, Itronics Metallurgical, Inc., is successfully completing start-up operations at its new Nevada fertilizer plant, the first of its kind to be built anywhere in the world.
• On December 21, 1999 the company announced that it has retained Trahan, Burden & Charles, which is among the top 100 largest advertising agencies in the United States, for branding development efforts for the Company's unique GOLD'n GRO liquid fertilizer products and 5-ounce ``Silver Nevada Miner'' bars.
• On November 30, 1999 the company announced that it has access to the photochemical waste necessary to operate its new liquid fertilizer factory at full capacity. This allows the company to focus on marketing its GOLD'n GRO^TM  line of multinutrient liquid fertilizer products to golf courses and growers of crops in California and the West.
• One of the top three photoprocessing companies in the US is in discussions to expand Itronics' service to its customer base.
• Itronics has identified a new source of waste, similar to photowaste, which it may be able to recycle at its new Reno/Stead facility.
• Discussions have been initiated with a major new potential customer that would provide more than 100,000 gallons of raw material a month for the new facility.
• On September 21, 1999 the company announced the completion of $2.6 million in private financing and $800,000 from a private placement, for a total of $3.4 million.