Blast furnace has been used for zinc-lead complex concentrate smelting for a long time. Zinc smelting with blast furnace is also named as Imperial Smelting Process (short form as ISP). ISP furnace can smelting the lead-zinc mixing concentrate, residue from zinc concentrate leaching and Crude Zinc Oxide(C.Z.O.) from EAF dust etc. to produce lead bullion and crude zinc at the same time.

 ISP played a profound role in zinc pyrometallurgy and the technology has been improved and developed a lot in actual application. However, the ISP technology nowadays is greatly restricted due to the fact that the production cost of ISP is relatively higher than zinc pressure leaching (ZPL) process, as the latter is getting mature in application.

Nevertheless, Metalcess has made optimization to enhance the competitiveness of ISP application. We try to change the heating method for the distillation of crude zinc on the purpose to reduce energy consumption and the wearing parts replacement cost. In combination with modified zinc distillation technology, ISP is expected to gain its share in zinc metallurgy in near future.  

Characteristics

1. ISP is most suitable for the treatment of mixed and complex zinc & lead ore, especially containing copper.

2. High recovery of precious metals, such as gold, silver and copper are captured by leadbullion.