Distribution State of Zinc and the Rare Elements Gallium and Germanium in a Zinc Ore

Abstract

This is an article in the field of process mineralogy. The occurrence of zinc, associated dispersed elements Ga and Ge and the distribution characteristics of the main carrier minerals of a zinc ore in China are studied in detail by means of chemical analysis, microscope analysis and MLA mineral automatic quantitative technology.The results indicate that the zinc ore contains Zn 4.87%, Ga 4.10 g/t and Ge 59.00 g/t, no independent minerals of dispersed elements Ga and Geare found, Ga and Ge mainly occur in sphalerite. The theoretical recovery of Zn, Ga and Ge from sphalerite (including hemimorphite) are about 95%, 56% and 93% respectively. A small part of colloidal and fine grained sphalerite is difficult to obtain dissociation and easy to be lost in tailings, which has a certain effect on the recovery of zinc.

Keywords

• process mineralogy
• zinc ore
• dispersed elements
• ga and ge
• mla
• occurrence state