THE BALKANS AND THE RAW-MATERIALS BASE FOR ZINC PRODUCTION

7th International Scientific Conference - SGEM2007, www.sgem.org, SGEM2007 Conference Proceedings/ ISBN: 954-918181-2, June 11-15, 2007

ABSTRACT

A major producer of zinc on the Balkans is Bulgaria (about 100 000 tons per
year). The two zinc plants in Plovdiv and Kardjali deliver a part of the necessary
raw materials from Bulgaria and the Balkan countries – Turkey, Romania,
Greece, Serbia and Macedonia. In this connection an analysis is made of the
delivered sulfide zinc concentrates through statistical processing of data about
their chemical content. For the aim of processing them according to the classic
hydrometallurgical scheme studies are carried out using X-ray phase analysis
as well as DTA and TGA. The obtained results show differences in the chemical
and phase content of the concentrates.
With an X-ray phase analysis it is established that the following phases are
present: β-ZnS; nZnS.mFeS; CuFeS2; PbS; SiO2 (α - quartz). The phase β-ZnS
is present in all concentrates and the other established phases are represented
differently in the separate concentrates.