: 16 Roasting converts the zinc sulfide concentrate to zinc oxide:

  
    
      
        
          2
          
          ZnS
          +
          3
          
          
            O
            
              2
            
            
              
            
          
          
            
              →
              
                
                  t
                  o
                
              
            
          
          2
          
          ZnO
          +
          2
          
          
            SO
            
              2
            
            
              
            
          
        
      
    
    {\displaystyle {\ce {2ZnS + 3O2 ->[t^o] 2ZnO + 2SO2}}}
  The sulfur dioxide is used for the production of sulfuric acid, which is necessary for the leaching process.
A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate (as dietary supplements), zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and dimethylzinc or diethylzinc in the organic laboratory. Characteristics
Physical properties
Zinc is a bluish-white, lustrous, diamagnetic metal, though most common commercial grades of the metal have a dull finish. It is somewhat less dense than iron and has a hexagonal crystal structure, with a distorted form of hexagonal close packing, in which each atom has six nearest neighbors (at 265.9 pm) in its own plane and six others at a greater distance of 290.6 pm. The metal is hard and brittle at most temperatures but becomes malleable between 100 and 150 °C. Above 210 °C, the metal becomes brittle again and can be pulverized by beating. Zinc is a fair conductor of electricity. For a metal, zinc has relatively low melting (419.5 °C) and boiling points (907 °C). The melting point is the lowest of all the d-block metals aside from mercury and cadmium; for this reason among others, zinc, cadmium, and mercury are often not considered to be transition metals like the rest of the d-block metals.Many alloys contain zinc, including brass. Other metals long known to form binary alloys with zinc are aluminium, antimony, bismuth, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, tin, magnesium, cobalt, nickel, tellurium, and sodium.