zinc (Zn), chemical element, a low-melting metal of Group 12 (IIb, or zinc group) of the periodic table, that is essential to life and is one of the most widely used metals. Zinc is of considerable commercial importance.

A little more abundant than copper, zinc makes up an average of 65 grams (2.3 ounces) of every ton of Earth’s crust. The chief zinc mineral is the sulfide sphalerite (zinc blende), which, together with its oxidation products smithsonite and hemimorphite, constitute nearly all of the world’s zinc ore. Native zinc has been reported from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and the leading early 21st-century producers of zinc are China, Australia and Peru. For zinc’s mineralogical properties, see native element.

Metallic zinc is produced by roasting the sulfide ores and then either leaching the oxidized product in sulfuric acid or smelting it in a blast furnace. Zinc is won from the leach solution by electrolysis or is condensed from the blast furnace gas and then distilled of impurities.

The major uses of zinc metal are in galvanizing iron and steel against corrosion and in making brasses and alloys for die-casting. Zinc itself forms an impervious coating of its oxide on exposure to the atmosphere, and hence the metal is more resistant to ordinary atmospheres than iron and corrodes at a much lower rate. In addition, because zinc tends to oxidize in preference to iron, some protection is afforded the steel surface even if some of it is exposed through cracks. The zinc coating is formed either by hot-dip galvanizing or electrogalvanizing.