Dissolution kinetics of hemimorphite in methane sulfonic acid

Hemimorphite has a large content of zinc, but its recovery using flotation alone is low. Nowadays, hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical methods are used to treat zinc ores. In this work, the leaching and dissolution kinetics of hemimorphite by using methane sulfonic acid (MSA) as an alternative leaching reagent was investigated. The effects of several experimental parameters including reaction temperature, MSA concentration, particle size, and stirring speed were also analyzed. Results showed that zinc leaching increased with increased reaction temperature, MSA concentration, and stirring speed, as well as decreased particle size. The mechanism of hemimorphite dissolution in MSA solutions may be a new variant of the shrinking-core model. Based on experimental data and kinetics, the apparent activation energy was determined to be 49.50 kJ/mol. The rate of reaction equation was also obtained to describe the process and found that the MSA concentration largely influenced the leaching of hemimorphite.