Abstract:
A process for recovering valuable metals from an iron dust with a high concentration of zinc comprising (1) pelletizing said dust into a pellet in a pelletizer, (2) preheating the resulting pellets by charging a hot gas to remove water, the loss on ignition and carbonaceous materials contained in the pellets, and in case of need, the conditions of gas charged are set up so as to reduce selectively iron oxide while controlling the reduction of zinc oxide practically at zero level, (3) melting and reducing zinc oxide, iron oxide and lead oxide in said pellets in an induction furnace to separate zinc and a part of lead by vaporization and iron and lead by means of the difference in their specific gravities, and collecting zinc and lead as crude ones, iron as molten pig iron and lead as crude one respectively.