Production of Indium

Almost all of Indium is produced as a byproduct of zinc production. A small amount is produced from tin production. Indium is produced from the slag of zinc production (the waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore) using a leaching process. Leaching is an technique used to extract metals which converts them to an aqueous state. Indium is leached using HCl or H₂SO₄ . There are many different processes to extract Indium from the zinc slag, and they vary from processor to processor.

Indium recovered from this process is metal of a low-grade. It is further refined to be a high purity metal in refineries. Indium is produced in a lot of different forms, such as foil, ribbon, ingot, plates, powder, shot and pellets, and wire