The most common zinc ore is sphalerite, ZnS, with a purity of between 3-10%. Zinc ores often contain copper and lead minerals.

Zinc is mined via open-pit mining (for surface ore bodies) and cut-and-fill stoping (for underground bodies).

Zinc ore is concentrated via crushing, grinding in ball mills, and flotation. The flotation process induces the separation of mineral particles from unwanted residues (or tailings) through special chemicals. The mineral particles rise to the surface of the flotation cells and are skimmed off. The resulting zinc concentrate contains 45-55% zinc as well as lead, copper, and silver. Zinc concentrate also contains sulphur, iron, arsenic, and mercury which are removed during the smelting process.

The first step in the processing of zinc concentrate is roasting and sintering in order to reduce the sulfur content. Sintered zinc concentrates are then fed into a blast furnace. The blast furnace produces ordinary grade zinc containing 1.2% lead. This grade of zinc does not have the range of applications of high grade zinc which is produced via electrolysis. Zinc produced by electrolysis reaches a purity of 99.995% which is the grade specified by the LME.

Applications
Zinc is mainly used to galvanise steel. Galvanised steel has numerous applications in construction and engineering, not to mention the auto industry.