Zinc metal is produced using extractive metallurgy. After grinding the ore, froth flotation, which selectively separates minerals from gangue by taking advantage of differences in their hydrophobicity, is used to get an ore concentrate. This concentrate consists of about 50% zinc with the rest being sulfur (32%), iron (13%), and SiO
2 (5%). The composition of this is normally zinc sulfide (80% to 85%), iron sulfide (7.0% to 12%), lead sulfide (3.0% to 5.0%) silica (2.5% to 3.5%), and cadmium sulfide (0.35% to 0.41%). COUNT 4
QSN1 What is used to produce the metal zinc? ANS1 extractive metallurgy. QSN2 What is froth flotation used for? ANS2 get an ore concentrate QSN3 What is the first step in zinc metal production? ANS3 grinding the ore QSN4 What percentage of the ore concentrate is zinc? ANS4 50%