Zinc And Lead Processing

Established in 1970, the PbZn symposium series is considered the leading international technical forum for the lead and zinc processing industries. The PbZn 2020 volume addresses all aspects of current processing technologies for primary and secondary lead and zinc, as well as emerging technologies for both metals.

This proceedings volume from the fourth decennial Lead-Zinc symposium brings together plant operators, engineers, and researchers to discuss hydrometallurgical, electrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical aspects of these commercially important metals. Lead-Zinc 2000 will emphasize both the theory and practice of the extractive metallurgy of lead and zinc including benchmark technologies; advances in lead smelting; imperial smelting technologies; commercial and novel leaching processes; solution purification; lead electrorefining; zinc electrowinning; pyrometallurgical refining of lead and zinc; lead and zinc secondaries; process fundamentals and modeling; and new processes and processing concepts. Environmental concerns associated with the processing of both metals will be considered, along with the acceptable disposal of the various slags, residues, and bleed streams produced by the industry. In addition, a select number of overview papers will be included on the economic aspects of lead and zinc, and the new applications for both metals.

Sintering is one of the final stages of ceramics fabrication and is used to increase the strength of the compacted material. In the Sintering of Ceramics section, the fabrication of electronic ceramics and glass-ceramics were presented. Especially dielectric properties were focused on. In other chapters, sintering behaviour of ceramic tiles and nano-alumina were investigated. Apart from oxides, the sintering of non-oxide ceramics was examined. Sintering the metals in a controlled atmosphere furnace aims to bond the particles together metallurgically. In the Sintering of Metals section, two sections dealt with copper containing structures. The sintering of titanium alloys is another topic focused in this section. The chapter on lead and zinc covers the sintering in the field of extractive metallurgy. Finally two more chapter focus on the basics of sintering,i.e viscous flow and spark plasma sintering.

The lead smelting industry has been experiencing increasing pressures on several fronts - pressure to reduce energy usage, to reduce overall cost of production, to improve environmental conditions associated with production, to improve recycling of waste lead products and to develop new markets and applications. These pressures have resulted in the development of new low cost, energy efficient processes achieving new standards of process emissions.

Achieving the goals and objectives of sustainable development requires better information about the consequences of proposed actions. Partial information accounts for many failed efforts in the past. The financial implications for the proponent of the projects have often been more thoroughly analyzed than the implications for other actors. The impacts on biological diversity, or on the social fabric of local communities, have often been ignored. Decisi- makers may also focus more on the short-term consequences instead of long- term impacts, creating negative unintended consequences. It is clear that better decision-making processes are needed. Making better decisions requires identifying, obtaining, synthesizing and acting on larger and more diverse data sets, including information that has previously been overlooked in development decisions. The good news is that better processes are being developed and are becoming available. If the goal is to reach decisions that are broadly understood and accepted, affected communities need to be consulted. Early public participation in defining problems is a prerequisite to effective decision-making. There is no universal formula or checklist of information applicable to every proposed project. The scope of information required should not be determined from the start by small cadres of experts. It is unlikely that any individual or small group processes all of the expertise to achieve the kind of profound int- disciplinary synthesis that is needed.