Smelting a Zn – Pb Sulfide Ore with Magnetite and Carbon for the Production of a Silicon Alloy and Extraction of Zinc and Lead into Sublimates

Abstract

The article presents the results of thermodynamic prediction and electric smelting of Shalkiya sulfide zinc-lead-bearing ore in the presence of magnetite and coke. Using the HSC-6.0 software package, it was found that under equilibrium conditions in the presence of Fe₃O₄ and carbon, the reduction and formation of gaseous zinc from ZnS (according to ∆G° = 0) occurs at a temperature of 1205.7 °C, and the formation of ferroalloy at the interaction of the sulfide ore with magnetite and carbon begins at 1200 °C. About 58% of silicon is extracted into the ferroalloy at 1800–1900 °C; almost all zinc and 83–88% of lead turns into a gaseous state. Electric smelting of the sulfide ore in the presence of magnetite concentrate and coke makes it possible to obtain the FS45 grade ferrosilicon (42–43% of Si); the silicon extraction degree was 84–88%. At the same time, 97.3% of lead and 99.2% of zinc are extracted into the sublimates. The developed method for processing zinc sulfide ores allows us to increase the degree of raw materials' comprehensive use due to the extraction of not only zinc and lead, but also silicon. The technology can be used to process raw materials containing zinc, lead and silica, such as zinc ore concentration tailings.