High gradient magnetic separation was conducted in order to separate insoluble zinc ferrite from zinc calcine before acid leaching of hydrometallurgical process. Chemical composition and structural characterization of zinc calcine were studied via inductively coupled plasma （ICP）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, Mossbauer spectra, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and laser particle analysis （LPA）. The parameters of magnetic separation which affect the distribution of zinc ferrite and undesired elements, such as calcium, sulfur and lead in magnetic concentrate were investigated. The results of high gradient magnetic separation indicate that more than 85% of zinc ferrite is distributed into magnetic concentrate from the zinc calcine under the magnetic induction of 0.70 T. In addition, about 60% of calcium and 40% of sulfur distribute in non magnetic phases of tailings during magnetic separation process. Most of lead distributes uniformly along the zinc calcine in superfine particle size.
Chemical, physical, structural and morphological properties of zinc leaching residue were examined by the combination of various detection means such as AAS, XRF, XRD, M？ssbauer spectrometry, SEM-EDS, TG-DSC, XPS and FTIR. The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure （TCLP） was used to investigate the environmental activity of zinc leaching residue for a short contact time. The phase composition analysis indicated that the zinc leaching residue mainly consists of super refined flocculent particles including zinc ferrite, sulfate and silicate. The physical structural analysis showed that it has a thermal instability and strong water absorption properties. The results of TCLP indicated that the amounts of Zn and Cd in the leaching solution exceed 40 and 90 times of limit, respectively, which demonstrate that this residue is unstable in weak acidic environment for a short contact time.
