Status and development trends of China's lead and zinc metallurgy technology: energy-saving potential

In the recent decade, China has become the largest producer of lead and zinc of the world, which brought about huge resource and environment burdens. On the basis of introducing and summarizing the status, features and applications of China's lead and zinc smelting technologies, this paper analyzes the existing problems and development orientation for China's lead and zinc industry. Given the consumption structure, the raw material for lead production will mainly originate from secondary lead-bearing materials, while that for zinc production will still originate from raw ores. Thus, millions of tons of zinc-containing slags will annually generate during processing raw lead-bearing ores. Therefore, the harmless treatment of these slags should call our attention.