Starting up the Sherritt Zinc Pressure Leach Process at Hudson Bay

The first commercial application of the Sherritt two-stage zinc pressure leach process commenced operation at the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company metallurgical complex in Flin Flon, Manitoba (Canada), on July 2, 1993. The start-up was relatively smooth, and full design rate for the plant was achieved by September 12, 1993. Since that time, zinc extraction in the zinc pressure leach plant has consistently been in excess of 98%, and production has continued to exceed expectations. The successful operation of the Hudson Bay plant represents a significant advancement of zinc processing technology, especially with respect to meeting the environmental challenge faced by zinc plants today.     

Cominco’s New Zinc Electrolytic and Melting Plant at Trail,B.C.

The new, 272,000 ton per year zinc electrolytic and melting plant at Cominco’s Trail Operations utilizes a number of significant in-house technological developments. It is the world’s largest plant and has achieved a high standard of plant cleanliness and production efficiency. Conceptual engineering, detail design, project management and construction were carried out almost entirely by Cominco personnel by drawing on over 60 years experience with electrolytic zinc production. This paper traces development of new systems and equipment, ending with a discussion of plant performance.     

Germanium,zinc’s important byproduct

A pioneer of germanium as well as Europe’s oldest and largest producer of zinc is Vieille-Montagne. Germanium output is centered at the zinc-lead plant of Balen, Belgium, where it is a byproduct of electrolytic zinc.     

Cadmium Purification with a Vibrating Reactor

This paper describes the results of pilot plant testwork on a novel single stage zinc solution purification process using a vibratory reactor. This technique was modified for continuous cadmium cementation. There are distinct advantages to combining an intensely agitated reactor with a high mass of precipitant per unit volume in the form of granular zinc instead of zinc dust, including significant reduction of cementation agent consumption and substantial upgrading of the cadmium cement. This technique has the potential to minimize equipment, reduce plant size, and diminish operating costs.     

全自动免扣打捆机在锌熔铸中的应用

以云南驰宏锌锗股份有限公司会泽冶炼分公司电锌厂150 kt/a锌熔铸生产线全自动免扣钢带打捆机为例,阐述了全自动免扣钢带打捆机的系统组成及在锌熔铸中的应用情况。     

湿法炼锌净化渣酸浸的动力学

对湿法炼锌净化渣的浸出动力学进行了研究,并探讨了硫酸浓度、反应温度、粒度等对钴、锌浸出率的影响规律。从动力学的角度分析了整个浸出过程,得到优化条件：液固比50：1(mL/g),硫酸浓度100 g/L,反应温度70°C,粒度75~80μm,反应时间20 min。在此优化条件下钴的浸出率为99.8%,锌的浸出率为91.97%。结果表明：在硫酸体系中钴的浸出符合不生成固体产物层的“未反应收缩核”模型。通过 Arrhenius 经验公式求得钴和锌表观反应活化能分别为11.693 kJ/mol和6.6894 kJ/mol,这表明浸出过程受边界层扩散控制。     

Production of Low-Lead Zinc for Continuous Galvanizing

Continuous galvanizing is now one of the major uses of zinc metal but its development posed very serious problems for zinc producers due to the need for meeting l?w-lead specifications. The following articles describe how several retortmg plants and one electrothermic plant Josephtown have solved this problem.     

圆主锌锅流场的物理模拟研究

采用水力学模型试验,针对某钢厂镀铝锌锌锅流场模拟研究。研究结果表明：主锌锅内的流场受钢带拉速的影响。在钢带运动情况下,锌锅内的流体出现明显的分层现象,锌锅内流体混匀时间有明显差异;通过对比实验,确定了拉速对于流场混匀时间起到主要影响,当钢带拉速在140 m/min时;流场效果最佳;通过模拟搅拌对比实验,确定了锌锅内流场的变化受到钢带拉速和搅拌相互作用的影响。根据实验结果,在搅拌作用下,钢带拉速应控制在120～140 m/min的范围内s,流场的混匀时间缩短25%～35%。     

Zinc Recovery via the Flame Reactor Process

A major objective of the zinc industry for the 1990s will be to maintain high zinc recovery while eliminating the disposal of copious quantities of hazardous iron residues. The flame reactor process has demonstrated the potential of meeting this objective by either treating the residues or smelting zinc directly. The process has been proven commercially viable for treating flue dusts generated during electric arc furnace steelmaking. Zinc, lead and cadmium are recovered from the dust as a crude oxide for recycle while a nonhazardous slag is produced for sale. Similar products are efficiently produced from electrolytic zinc plant neutral leach and iron precipitation residues. In addition, the reactor shows promise of fulfilling its original objective of being a low-energy primary zinc smelter by fuming and condensing zinc from roasted concentrates.     

Cominco’s new sinter plant

A lead smelter treating a high proportion of hydrometallurgical zinc plant residues requires specialized technique of feed preparation to incorporate the residues with other feed into a pelletized form for sintering. The design and operation of such a plant at Trail, B. C., is described.     

Evaluating additives and impurities in zinc electrowinning

The zinc electrowinning (EW) process is very sensitive to the presence of impurities. There is only one EW plant in the world that we know of that operates at moderate current efficiency and deposition times without using any additives. All the others must use them continuously. Additives allow zinc EW to occur at high current efficiencies while suppressing excessive acid mist formation. The study of the electrochemical effects of additives in zinc EW is not straightforward. This article presents a review of the experimental techniques currently used at Cominco Research: Cyclic voltammetry, Hull cells, laboratory and mini-cell electrowinning techniques are all described and their relationship to the industrial operation is discussed.     

Utilizing Iron Residues from Zinc Production in the U.S.S.R.

When zinc calcine leach residues are subjected to conventional hydro-metallurgical treatment, iron is removed from the production circuit in the form of jarosite or goethite. A combined hydrometallurgical treatment of zinc calcine and zinc oxide fume leach residues applied at a zinc plant in the U.S.S.R. produces potassium jarosite containing undesirable impurities of 1.5–2.0 wt.% Zn, 0.2–0.3 wt.% Cu, 0.2–0.6 wt.% Pb, 0.005–0.01 wt. % Cd and 27–29 wt. % Fe. After some study, it was found that low-contaminant jarosite can be used in iron-oxide pigments and in cement clinker production. Methods for manufacturing such products have been developed and tested on a pilot-plant scale, and commercial tests are in progress. The investigations carried out for low-contaminantjarosite utilization resulted not only in the development of a wasteless and environmentally acceptable technology for zinc calcine treatment, but made it possible to recover one more valuable component—iron—from zinc raw materials.     

Welding cracks of Zn-contaminated stainless steel pipe

Stainless steel pipings in a chemical plant suffered from welding cracks due to contamination by zinc-rich paint. In order to establish general measures for preventing the zinc embrittlement in the above case, welding tests of stainless steel contamined by zinc-rich paint were carried out at a laboratory. A quantitative relationship between degree of zinc contamination and depth of welding crack was obtained. Several methods for the decontamination of zinc-rich paint, the detection of zinc contamination and the method for repairing cracks are indicated.     

Can leaching aid the copper mines?

THE only living member of the original Tainton technical staff that operated the Martinez electrolytic-zinc plant and proved the commercial soundness of high acid-high current density deposition of zinc tells of the tribulations encountered in that early work. It is then shown that copper leaching may well have a great deal in common with zinc hydrometallurgy and that several proven metallurgical processes could be integrated into complete operations adaptable to a wide variety of copper mine conditions.     

Flotation of indium-beard marmatite from multi-metallic ore

Flotation of indium-beard marmatite from Dulong multi-metallic ore in Yunnan Province of China was studied to improve the grades and recoveries of zinc and indium of the zinc concentrate in Dulong concentration plant.The experimental results indicated that copper sulfate mixed with a chemical reagent X-1 as the activator in the marmatite flotation produced a much better beneficiation than copper sulfate alone,increasing the zinc and indium recoveries of 10% and 6%,respectively,while the concentrate grades remained unchanged.Also,the new activator acted well around pH 10,allowing large savings on lime consumption in the rnarmatite flotation.In addition,it has been found that a sufficient activated lime of activator with ore slurry in the flotation is needed to achieve good beneficiation of the marmatite ore.     

麻竹竹叶提取物在NaOH中对锌的缓蚀作用

麻竹(Dendrocalmus Latifcorus Munro)竹叶提取物(简称DMLE)可作为一种环境友好型植物缓蚀剂,本工作采用失重法研究了DMLE在1.0 mol/L NaOH溶液中对锌的缓蚀作用.结果表明,DMLE具有良好的缓蚀作用,最大缓蚀率接近90%,且在锌表面的吸附符合校正的Langmuir吸附等温式....     

镀锌板表面锌渣缺陷的控制

结合鞍钢冷轧厂镀锌线投产三年来的生产实践,对热镀锌板锌渣缺陷形成机理进行了分析,重点探讨锌渣缺陷产生的原因,提出在实际生产中从工艺和设备上采取措施进行控制,减少锌渣缺陷的产生,提高镀锌板表面质量。     

Oxygen-Enriched Air in Lead and Zinc Smelting

This paper describes the use of oxygen-enriched air in suspension zinc roasters, lead blast furnaces, and slag fuming furnaces at the Trail, B. C., plant of Consolidated Mining & Smelting Co. of Canada Ltd.     

Hydrometallurgically recovering zinc from electric arc furnace dusts

The increasing use of zinc-containing scrap for steel production has lead to a high zinc content in the electric arc furnace and converter flue dusts. The cost of disposing of this residue is high due to environmental restrictions. Various recycling processes have been developed for these dusts, but most never reached the pilot plant stage and many investigations were stopped because of metallurgical and economical inefficiencies. While pyrometallurgical methods have to deal with high energy consumption, low zinc yield, and valueless residues, hydrometallurgical processes could offer an economical recycling alternative. This paper describes hydrometallurgical methods for recovering zinc from steel industry dust. These methods can be integrated in the primary zinc-winning process or in galvanization. Investigations of sulfuric-acid leaching show high zinc solubility but also a high iron content in the final liquor. As a result, steps for purification are required that cannot be conducted economically. Alternatively, a NaOH leaching gives a satisfying zinc yield and a very low solubility for the iron that remains in the residue. For more information, contact J. Antrekowitsch, University of Leoben, Nonferrous Metallurgy Department, Franz-Josef-Str. 18, Leoben, Styria A-8700, Austria; +43-3842-402322; fax +43-3842-402627; e-mail antreko@unileoben.ac.at.     

Recovering in,Ge and Ga from zinc residues

A novel solvent extraction process has been developed to selectively recover indium, germanium and gallium from the cement residue sulfuric acid leach solutions in a hydrometallurgical zinc plant. The key work was to determine a special organic molecule for gallium and germanium extraction. Continuous countercurrent tests on the mini-pilot plant level were performed successfully with 90.7%, 94.2% and 92.9% yield from cement residue to metals, for indium, gallium and germanium, respectively.