By Armando Duke

(AXcess News) Houston - Reno-based Itronics, Inc. (OTC: ITRO) says it doubled silver sales during the first 9 months of the year, despite a downturn in spent photoliquid volume which the company recovers heavy metals from in the manufacture of its green silver.

Itronics, which operates the only EPA-approved plant in the nation to process photochemical waste into environmentally friendly fertilizers it sells under its GOLD'n GRO brand, credited its improved 9 months ending results to a surge in green silver sales, though fertilizer sales also showed a 3% improvement.

Investors pushed Itronics to a new 52-week high recently after the Company announced its long-awaited expansion of its phase one silver processing plant.  Itronics' phase one expansion could make the Company one of the largest makers of green silver in the nation.  The expansion would increase Itronics' silver production ten-fold and is expected to be in place in a matter of months.

Dr. John Whitney, Itronics President, said in a news release Thursday that orders in October were up 33% over the same period last year, calling the gain a "solid indication of continuing growth".

Silver futures were down 15 cents at $17.39 in midday trading in New York Thursday, though gold reached a new high of over $1090 per ounce.  At the time that Itronics announced its phase one silver processing plant expansion, silver traded in the $16 per ounce range, though as the economy continues to show signs of improvement, demand for commodity and precious metals are rising.

While Itronics has access to plenty of photochemicals it can process, a new source of raw materials has come into play through the recycling of steel wool cartridges used in the photo industry that will assure ample supply of silver-bearing materials to meet its projected increase in green silver production.

Itronics stated in an Oct. 15 press release that its "Itromet FeLix and Itromet SuLix technologies may also be adaptable to process certain types of silver/gold-bearing mineral concentrates produced by mines."

Itromet Felix and SuLix are in keeping with Itronics' environmentally friendly approach to manufacturing both green silver and its GOLD'n GRO line of liquid fertilizers and are part of the leaching process.   Itronics will also be able to recover iron from the steel wool canisters in manufacturing chemicals to produce several new brands of fertilizer.  Since the Oct 15 release, Itronics disclosed that it was launching one new brand in California already, having gained EPA labeling approval.  California is Itronics' largest market for GOLD'n GRO fertilizers and just days ago, the Company announced that it had obtained inventory funding for raw materials needed to meet its growing demand.