Abstract: Zinc is one of the elements whose compounds have been known since ancient times. China was the first country in the world to discover and use zinc. The English name "Zinc" and chemical symbol Zn come from the Latin word "Zincum," meaning "white thin layer" or "white deposit."
History of Zinc: Zinc is one of the elements whose compounds have been known since ancient times. China was the first country in the world to discover and use zinc. The English name "Zinc" and chemical symbol Zn come from the Latin word "Zincum," meaning "white thin layer" or "white deposit."
Jiajing Tongbao (five qian on the reverse) - a brass coin. In ancient times, what people first used was brass, an alloy produced by melting zinc ore together with copper. The extraction of metallic zinc came much later than that of copper, iron, tin, and lead. It is generally believed that when carbon and zinc ore were heated together, the temperature quickly rose above 1,000°C. Since the boiling point of zinc is 906°C, the zinc immediately turned into vapor and escaped with the smoke, making it difficult for ancient people to notice. Only after people mastered the method of condensing gases was it possible to obtain elemental zinc.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) recorded the world's earliest zinc smelting technology. The production process was very simple: calamine (smithsonite ore) was packed and sealed in clay pots, which were piled into a cone with charcoal filling the gaps between the pots. After burning, the pots were broken open to obtain extracted metallic zinc ingots. In addition, Wang Lian (1888-1966), a pioneer in the study of chemistry history and analytical chemistry in China, analyzed ancient coins from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties in 1956. He found that Shaosheng coins of the Song Dynasty contained high levels of zinc, and proposed the correct scientific conclusion that China's use of zinc began during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. The practical use of zinc may have predated the writing of "Tiangong Kaiwu." In the 10th and 11th centuries, China was the first country to produce zinc on a large scale.
According to other literature, India was the earliest country in the world to smelt zinc, dating back to AD 1025–1280. The method, completely opposite to China's, was a distillation process known as "fire above, condensation below."
In 1745, a ship of the East India Company that sank off the coast of Sweden was confirmed to be carrying Chinese zinc. Analysis of the recovered ingots showed that they were almost pure metallic zinc.
Abundance: Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes. The most common zinc-bearing ore is sphalerite, a zinc sulfide. The largest exploitable ore deposits are located in Australia, Asia, and the United States. Zinc ores are concentrated by froth flotation, then refined by roasting and electrolytic extraction.
Current Development of the Zinc Industry: Since 2000, China has been the world's largest zinc producer and consumer, and the development of China's lead-zinc industry has attracted international attention. However, severe zinc overcapacity currently exists in both the Chinese and global markets. China's zinc industry urgently needs to adjust its industrial structure, strengthen technological innovation, and accelerate merger and reorganization among zinc enterprises. The global zinc industry has now reached its peak. As China's economic growth slows, demand for zinc will gradually stabilize, and future development of the zinc industry will rely more on technological improvements to enhance product quality and industrial structure.