Study of new process technology for low-grade refractory zinc oxide ore

In this paper, a low-grade zinc oxide ore in Yunnan, China is investigated. A large number of argillaceous and alkaline gangue makes it infeasible to treat the ore with heap leaching. In order to solve this problem, several new technologies combining mineral processing and metallurgy technique are studied to process this refractory ore with 6.50 per cent Zn. It is shown that the reasonable new process technology of combining mineral processing of Zn oxides after sulfides and hydrometallurgy could realize efficient recovery of the zinc minerals in the ore. 85.90 per cent of Zn was recovered by flotation and totally 80.95 per cent of Zn can be recovered by this new technology of combining mineral processing and metallurgy. One merit of this new process technology is that the zinc sulfides and oxides can be recovered without desliming in the flotation cells at the different stage and make sure the concentrate products as a good feed for hydrometallurgical technology. This study provided pretty good technical support for tapping low-grade refractory zinc oxide ores. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.