Abstract
Zinc is one of the main non-ferrous metals, and it is currently the fourth most widely consumed metal, after iron, aluminium, and copper. The rate of its use has risen rapidly in recent decades. The requirement to meet growing zinc demand will require zinc smelters, and those in China, in particular to increase utilization rates. The demand for the next 5 years new smelting capacity will be required, to increase the capacity of zinc smelting outside of China. Zinc smelters in the European Union are now facing a lot of problems, such as high energy costs. It is significant opportunity for Turkey that has several zinc sources. There is not sufficient zinc metal production in Turkey. Zinc sources are exported to abroad as zinc concentrate. Cumulative foreign trade deficit of 4 billion dollars for zinc since 2011. Zinc smelting facilities are needed both to evaluate domestic production and to support lead-zinc mining and to meet domestic metal demand. Since smelting facilities are an industrial application, the number of academic studies is very low and hardly ever encountered in the literature. In this context, new studies regarding zinc smelter in order to develop new approach for building a zinc smelter in Turkey is extremely important. This study will provide an approach of necessity zinc smelter in Turkey and examine that zinc smelter in Turkey is extremely important and may open new doors. This study reviews the situation of the zinc industry in Turkey, including global first and end use of zinc, global zinc market and future opportunities.