# Evaluation and Current State of Primary and Secondary Zinc Production--A Review
## 2 Zinc Production, Demand and Applications  
### Zinc Production  
The good properties of zinc and the growing demand for this metal result in a continuous increase in zinc production throughout the 20 th and 21 st centuries. Table 1 shows the amount of zinc production in the years 1871-1927. Until 1840, Germany was the world's leading producer of zinc [13]. In 1907, world production was 737,500 tons, of which the United States produced 31%, Germany 28%, Belgium 21%, Great Britain 8% and all other countries 12% [13]. During World War I, zinc production increased significantly, reaching more than a million tons (1,079,155 tons in 1916 and 1,094,888 tons in 1917, respectively). In the post-war period, zinc production fell by almost half (520,418 tons in 1921), which was caused by the economic crisis. In the 1920s and 1930s, a continuous increase in zinc production was observed, which in 1944 reached the level of about 2 million tons. The increase in zinc production at that time was associated with the coming conflict and the outbreak of World War II. After the war, zinc production steadily increased, exceeding 3 million tons in 1960, 4 million tons in 1965 and 6 million tons in 1975 [16]. This resulted from the post-war reconstruction and the progressing economic development of the countries. However, the greatest increase in zinc production is observed in the 1990s and in the early 21 st century. Table 2 shows the amount of zinc production in the years 1991-2015 (data taken from [18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26]). In 2015, global zinc production increased to 13.9 million tons, mainly due to an increase in production in China. Zinc production indicators are the following: mine production (production of zinc contained in ores and concentrates), refined zinc production (production of metallic zinc quantifying the amount of zinc processed in the rectification process) and zinc usage (including both refined zinc and zinc extracted from other sources). World zinc production in 2016-2022, presented by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) (Table 3), show that over 13 Mt of refined metallic zinc is currently produced annually, of which over 12 Mt comes from mine production [27]. The decrease in zinc production estimated for 2021 due to the instability and uncertainty of the rate of economic growth rate caused by the development of the pandemic and the increase in COVID-19 infections [18] did not, however, result in a decrease in refined zinc production (Table 3). However, government lockdowns and a drop in zinc prices after the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic caused a decrease in mine production in many countries in 2021, especially in South America [19]. This year, in the period from January to September, a clear decrease in both mine production, refined zinc production and zinc usage was observed compared to the same period in 2021 (Table 3) [28]. It is estimated that world mine production will peak in 2024, exceeding 14 million tons. After this period, mining is likely to decline due to the deteriorating quality of ores and the depletion of zinc reserves [18]. Total global zinc reserves are estimated at around 250 million tons. Due to the relatively high demand for this metal, it has been calculated that zinc reserves will probably only last for the next 17 years [26]. Figure 1 shows countries with large reserves of zinc deposits. Australia has the world's largest zinc reserves (68 million tons), followed by China, Mexico, Russia and Peru [26]. Figure 2 shows the production of zinc from ores and concentrates in the years 1995-2020. Since 1995, there has been a continuous increase in mining in China. In 1995, about 12% of mine production was produced by China. Within 25 years, the extraction of zinc ores in China increased to 35% of global extraction, reaching the level of 4.2 Mt in 2020 [26]. The main producers of zinc from ores and concentrates are also Australia (11% of production in 2020), Peru (10%) and Mexico (5%) [19].