text: This process was developed by the St. Joseph Mineral Company in 1930, and is the only pyrometallurgical process still used in the US to smelt zinc. The advantage of this system is that it is able to smelt a wide variety of zinc-bearing materials, including electric arc furnace dust. The disadvantage of this process is that it is less efficient than the electrolysis process.
  The process begins with a downdraft sintering operation. The sinter, which is a mixture of roaster calcine and EAF (electric arc furnace) calcine, is loaded onto a gate type conveyor and then combustions gases are pumped through the sinter. The carbon in the combustion gases react with some impurities, such as lead, cadmium, and halides. These impurities are driven off into filtration bags. The sinter after this process, called product sinter, usually has a composition of 48% zinc, 8% iron, 5% aluminium, 4% silicon, 2.5% calcium, and smaller quantities of magnesium, lead, and other metals. The sinter product is then charged with coke into an electric retort furnace. A pair of graphite electrodes from the top and bottom of the furnace produce current flow through the mixture. The coke provides electrical resistance to the mixture in order to heat the mixture to  and produce carbon monoxide. These conditions allow for the following chemical reaction to occur:
  The zinc vapour and carbon dioxide pass to a vacuum condenser, where zinc is recovered by bubbling through a molten zinc bath. Over 95% of the zinc vapour leaving the retort is condensed to liquid zinc. The carbon dioxide is regenerated with carbon, and the carbon monoxide is recycled back to the retort furnace.