Ausmelt Technology is readily used to recover zinc, lead, silver and other metals including indium and germanium from many waste and primary zinc-bearing feeds. Metallurgical by-products from lead and zinc operations such as goethite, jarosite and neutral leach residues from zinc electrolytic plants, and slags and residues from QSL, blast furnace or other lead smelters can be processed. Ausmelt Zinc Technology is also suitable for the treatment of EAF dust and other residues generated by the steel industry.

Ausmelt Zinc Technology is also used for processing zinc silicate, carbonate ores, and other complex ores.

Zinc Ore Smelting

Four commercial plants use Ausmelt Zinc Technology, with a fifth due to begin operation in 2006. Korea Zinc operates a large Ausmelt plant consisting of two furnaces to treat 120,000 tonnes a year of electrolytic zinc leach residues. A second plant is used to process 100,000 tonnes a year of QSL slag. A third plant treats 100,000 tonnes a year of tailings to fume zinc.These plants are part of a tightly integrated circuit at Korea Zinc’s Onsan facility that also incorporates three other Ausmelt plants to optimise metal recovery. Mitsui Mining and Smelting also operate an Ausmelt Zinc Technology plant to treat 160,000 tonnes a year of Imperial Smelting Process slag, while the fifth Ausmelt zinc fuming plant will treat 100,000 tonnes a year of zinc residues for the Young Poong Corporation in South Korea.