G7/8 Cycle A - 1: Geology: Zinc

The metallic element zinc is commonly used to coat buckets, rainspouts, and other iron or steel objects to prevent rusting.

Nearly all zinc is obtained from sulfide ores, which also usually contain lead, cadmium and other metals such as iron and silver. The most commonly occurring ores are sphalerite, also known as zinc blende (ZnS), and another variety of sphalerite called marmatite which contains significant quantities of iron sulfides.
Sulfide ores are widely distributed throughout the world.

Compared to tin mining, the history of zinc mining is relatively short. In the 18th century, it was discovered that sphalerite, or zinc sulfide, could be smelted into brass, resulting in the first patented techniques. Since then, the zinc industry has progressed to the current zinc mining process and production methods used today.

First, the ore is ground into a fine dust via a series of ball mills. This dust is then mixed with water and reagents in our zinc-lead concentrator's flotation circuit.