Beneficiation of Lead-Zinc Ores – A Review

ABSTRACT

In recent years, lead and zinc, emerge to become one of the most widely used non-ferrous metals for their growing demand in lead-acid batteries, galvanization, radio-active shielding, alloy, and pigments, etc. With continuous exploitation and expanding plant capacity, exhaustion of primary high-grade lead-zinc resources has already been initiated. This culminates into low grade, fine grain size, complex ore mineralogy, and poor liberation, thus, causing the beneficiation of lead-zinc ore a challenging task. This paper summarizes the classification of ore deposits and different beneficiation techniques that are currently employed for the treatment of lead-zinc ore. Froth flotation is the most widely used beneficiation technique. The selection of a suitable reagent regime in view of varied mineralogy, physical and chemical characteristics of lead-zinc ore is of critical importance to achieve maximum grade and recovery. Other than flotation, gravity concentration, magnetic separation, or combined processing techniques adopted for processing of lead-zinc ores are also reviewed. A brief summary of different beneficiation practices at different places is presented in detail and further research areas are identified.

KEYWORDS:

• Lead-zinc ore
• beneficiation
• froth flotation
• mineralogy
• sulfides

Acknowledgments

The corresponding author is thankful to the Director of CSIR-IMMT for his kind permission to publish this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.