The Imperial Smelting process is a blast furnace process for the simultaneous recovery of zinc and lead. It was developed at Avonmouth, England, by the imperial smelting corporation. Although the first commercial furnace was built only in 1959, there are now eight others operating under licence in various countries. Two more come into operation during 1968 and two more are under construction. It is estimated that in 1968 the furnaces in operation will produce together some 430000 tons of zinc and 220,000 tons of lead. It can therefore be claimed that the proces has already made a considerable impact in non-ferrous metallurgy
