Extraction of Zinc
Zinc is an essential trace element involved in the proper functioning of numerous enzymes in humans, animals, and plants. It is a bluish-white metallic element of relatively low melting and boiling points. Thus, it can be extracted from ores containing zinc sulfide through a process called zinc smelting.
Zinc smelting is a complex process that involves several steps such as ore processing, roasting, sintering, smelting and refining. The first step of the process is ore processing. The ore is crushed and ground into a powder. This powder then goes through physical and chemical processes to remove impurities such as iron, sulfur, and arsenic.
The next step is roasting, which involves heating the zinc sulfide ore concentrated to temperatures of about 900-950°C for several hours. This process separates zinc oxide and sulfides from the ore and brings them together as a molten mixture. The third step is sintering, where the heated mixture is cooled, then compressed and heated again. This helps to create a product that is more suitable for smelting.
The fourth step is the actual smelting of the ore. Smelting involves heating the sintered product to temperatures above 1400°C in a special furnace called a reverberatory furnace. The zinc sulfide ore used in the process is oxidized and converted into an oxide form. The released sulfur is then converted into sulfur dioxide, a gas that is removed from the process. The fifth and final step of zinc smelting is refining. During this process, the molten zinc oxide produced from smelting is separated from other elements in the ore. This is done by passing an electric current through the zinc oxide, a process called electrolysis. The resulting product is 99.9% pure zinc that is used in a variety of industries such as metalworking and galvanization.
Zinc smelting is a complicated process that involves a series of steps to extract zinc from ores containing zinc sulfide. The process involves ore processing, roasting, sintering, smelting, and refining. Once complete, the result is a 99.9% pure zinc product that is used in numerous industries.
