Ground-up computer circuit boards are finding a new and valuable life as components in silver bullion production. Itronics Inc., a manufacturer of fertilizer, glass and bullion based in Reno, NV, is recycling the e-scrap as a "cost reducing" precious metal-bearing raw material. E-scrap is readily available in large quantities, creating the opportunity to expand the breakthrough recovery operation in phases to a meaningful commercial scale.

Itronics has conducted more than 20 test melts using one of its large furnaces and this generated part of the bullion shipped early this year. The company has subsequently produced several hundred ounces of bullion that they have not yet shipped. Current silver bullion production is approximately 1,500 troy ounces per month.

Process optimization is continuing and further furnace operation improvements are being identified and implemented. Per melt production tripled from 500 to 1,500 ounces per month during the first quarter of 2017, and improvements are expected to increase per melt recoveries by another 20 to 50 percent in the near term.

Using e-scrap as a raw material represents a new zero waste technology for Itronics and is expected to significantly increase both the profitability of the silver recovery operation and the company's revenues. The metal recovery concept uses the silver from photographic liquids to collect the metals contained in the e-scrap into saleable bullion. A novel aspect of this technology is that the company uses the measured composition of several different raw materials, including e-scrap, plus fluxes, to formulate and produce a new chemical composition of glass that is able to reject all of the base and precious metals recovered from the e-scrap into the silver bullion, except for a very small amount of silver and copper which remains in the copper-silver glass produced.