Investigation of Leaching Kinetics of Smithsonite Ore

The leaching kinetics of smithsonite ore in acetic acid solutions, an environmental friend, and natural reagent was investigated. The influence of parameters such as reaction temperature, particle size, solid-liquid ratio and acid concentration was studied in order to reveal the leaching kinetics of smithsonite ore. In this study, experimental and statistical methods were carried out in order to analyze the kinetics data to investigate a kinetics model which describes the dissolution. The results indicate that the unreacted shrinking core model for fluid-solid heterogeneous reactions was favorable for the leaching process. The apparent activation energy of the leaching process was found as 74 kJ/ mol. It was determined that the leaching rate of smithsonite was controlled by the chemical reaction below.