Question

Is calamine a carbonate ore?

Answer 1

Calamine has two different minerals in it, but only one of them has carbonate in it. One of the two formulas of calamine is $ZnC{{O}_{3}}$ , as zinc is in it with carbonate it is used for the extraction process of zinc and not carbonate.

Complete answer:
The correct answer to this question is no, calamine is not an ore of carbonate, in fact it is an ore of zinc.
The chemical formula of calamine mineral is $Z{{n}_{4}}S{{i}_{2}}{{O}_{7}}{{(OH)}_{2}}{{H}_{2}}O$ . As there is no carbonate present in this mineral of calamine, it cannot be a carbonate ore.
This mineral is specifically used to extract zinc from $Z{{n}_{4}}S{{i}_{2}}{{O}_{7}}{{(OH)}_{2}}{{H}_{2}}O$ .
Although, calamine also contains another mineral from which zinc can be extracted, it is zinc carbonate $ZnC{{O}_{3}}$. One might think that carbonate can be extracted from this, but it is used to obtain pure zinc.
To obtain zinc from zinc carbonate, first its calcination is done to obtain zinc oxide from it, carbon dioxide is obtained as a by-product.
$ZnC{{O}_{3}}\xrightarrow{Calcination}ZnO+C{{O}_{2}}$
After obtaining zinc oxide, reduction is carried out and thus we obtain pure zinc from it. Carbon monoxide is obtained as a by-product.
$ZnO+C\xrightarrow{\operatorname{Re}duction}Zn+CO$
Thus, the other mineral of calamine which is zinc carbonate is also used for the extraction of zinc and not carbonate.

Note:
In fact, the name calamine is derived from a latin word lapis calaminaris which meant zinc ores in general. Calamine is actually no longer a valid term, instead smithsonite and hemimorphite are used. Calamine is also used as lotion to cure itchiness, skin burns and other skin diseases, but this lotion has some additional substances to the basic calamine.