Production of spelter from calamine

• Main Author: Yeater, Merritt W.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholars' Mine 1887
• Subjects: Spelter; Mining Engineering; Carbonic acid
• Online Access: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/professional_theses/187; https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1210&context=professional_theses

Calamine is one of the most important ores of Zinc and together with the silicates with which it is almost always associated is extensively employed for the production of Zinc. Smithsonite formerly called calamine when pure, consists of Zinc oxide and carbonic acid containing 52 percent of Zinc. It has a specific gravity of 4.2, hardness 4.5m and color is from pale yellow to green. The silicate when anhydrous called Willemite, contains 58 percent of Zinc, specific gravity 4, hardness 5.5, and color from white to gray or pale yellow. When hydrous it is called Calamine, specific gravity 3.16 to 3.9, hardness 4.75, and color pale yellow or white.