LIP4CAT® Technology

The production of metallic zinc is based primarily on the leaching of zinc calcine, which is produced by roasting high-grade zinc concentrates.

During the roasting process, a reaction between the zinc and iron present in the concentrate produces zinc ferrite, which requires strongly acidic reaction conditions and high temperatures to dissolve.

To optimize acid consumption and reduce zinc losses, this leaching is carried out in a countercurrent process using between 2 and 3 reaction stages.

The LIP4CAT® technology consists of the following units:

SCL

(gentle leaching of calcined materials)

Zinc oxide is dissolved under mild acidic conditions at low temperature using the acid solution produced in the SFL stage.

SFL

(severe leaching of ferrites)

The solid resulting from the previous step is subjected to a strong acid treatment at high temperature to dissolve the zinc ferrite.

LIP4CAT® technology enables the recovery of zinc from calcine in just two process stages because, when combined with ZINCEX® technology, it allows leaching reactions to take place under more dilute conditions.

These leaching conditions, with low pulp densities, make it possible to achieve very high leaching efficiencies using only two leaching stages and milder reaction conditions.

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