Itronics Inc. reported that it has begun formulation development for a new nutritionally complete liquid multi-nutrient GOLD'n GRO fertilizer that contains essentially all the nutrients that a plant needs to grow and be healthy. The new fertilizer, made possible by the Company's Advanced Nutrient Transfer Technology (ANT Technology), contains nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, sulfur, and zinc, and has the targeted formulation GOLD'n GRO 12-1-5 with 2% Ca, 1.0% Fe, 1% Mg, 0.1% Mn, 2% S, 0.5% Zn, and trace amounts of copper, boron, and molydenum. A stable liquid formulation with such a high and relatively complete nutrient package was not previously possible due to significant chemistry technical barriers.

This new technology is a "break through" technology achievement, and for the first time will provide farmers, nursery growers, turf growers, golf courses, and home gardeners the opportunity to use an affordable, complete liquid fertilizer for growing their crops. Severe soil nutrient deficiencies can still be corrected by single nutrient fertilization. The potential for crop improvement using this approach is enormous.

Due to the ANT Technology, the nutrients are expected to be readily available to the plant roots when applied to the soil with drip or micro-sprinkler irrigation, or other methods. Agronomists know that many crops suffer from hidden nutrient deficiencies and from deficiencies that cannot be cost-effectively remedied by single nutrient fertilization. They also know that soils worldwide are being depleted of their nutrients.

Having a multi-nutrient liquid fertilizer that contains most of the needed plant nutrients in a stable, readily available form has the potential to improve crop growth, health, and yields by eliminating hidden nutrient deficiencies and to replenish the broad nutrient content of soils that are currently being depleted. A key aspect of this new formulation will be affordability, made possible by availability of a new multi-nutrient raw material source being developed by Itronics. Itronics' new Rock Kleen Technology being developed to process spent mine tailings is demonstrating the ability to recover nitrogen, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sulfur, and zinc from gold/silver mine tailings.

Rock Kleen processing requires regular removal of a small percentage of the liquid chemistry being used, called a 'bleed stream', which is replaced by new chemistry to prevent the buildup of impurities. The bleed stream is removed after all the non-nutrient metals have been recovered, making this multi-nutrient liquid highly suitable for use as a raw material for manufacturing the fertilizer. Once a Rock Kleen operation is established, the amount of new liquid needed, and the amount of bleed stream liquid will be stable quantities on an ongoing basis.

The Company created the technology for this by developing the ability to demetallize spent silver-bearing photographic liquids and to formulate them for use as a raw material in the manufacture of the GOLD'n GRO fertilizers. The ANT Technology is a direct result of this. The 'Award Winning' GOLD'n GRO fertilizers have been proven environmentally clean, safe, and effective over 30 years of field testing and commercial use on a wide variety of field, vegetable, tree, and vine crops, turf farms and golf courses, and on home lawns and gardens.

They have consistently demonstrated the ability to improve crop quality and yield. The new Rock Kleen bleed stream liquid is expected to become available in large volume from each Rock Kleen project that is developed. Each new Rock Kleen project will expand the raw material supply by a measured amount.

Fertilizer consumers will be able to look forward to a large and measured and expanding supply of GOLD'n GRO multi-nutrient fertilizers as the emerging Rock Kleen technology is applied to new projects. Gold/silver mining is a worldwide activity as are tailings from the mining. The Rock Kleen Technology is expected to be useable to process gold/silver mine tailings regardless of where they are located, meaning that the raw material over time would become available on a broad geographic basis.