Abstract:Technological process to recover and produce high purity gallium from zinc concentrates were put forward. Three stages to recover high purity gallium from zinc concentrates were analyzed, i.e., from zinc concentrates to elementary enrichment of gallium-bearing slag, from gallium-bearing slag to produce crude gallium, and from crude gallium to produce high purity gallium. At the first stage, gallium-bearing zinc replacement slag with gallium content of 0.25% above was obtained from zinc concentrates by two-step countercurrent pressure leaching, neutralization and displacement. At the second stage, gallium concentrate with gallium content of 20%~40% was obtained from gallium-bearing zinc replacement slag by pre-neutralization and iron-extraction, co-extraction of gallium and germanium with P204+YW100, gallium striping with high acidity, acid and gallium separation by diffusion dialysis, vulcanization purification of diffusion dialysis residual solution, and gallium neutralization precipitation. Crude gallium with gallium grade of 99.99% below was obtained from gallium concentrate by alkali dissolution, sulfuration purification, electrolysis, and washing. At the third stage, high purity gallium with gallium grade of 99.999% above was prepared from crude gallium by electrolytic refinement, vacuum distillation, and zone melting.