<p>To address the issues of prolonged processes, elevated energy consumption, and significant pollution within the zinc smelting industry, this paper presents a novel high-efficiency, short-flow process of direct zinc smelting using oxidative smelting of zinc concentrate and electrothermal reduction of high-zinc slag. Thermodynamic calculations were employed to elucidate the reaction mechanism of oxidation and reduction melting as well as the evolution of elemental phases, while extended experiments were then carried out to further investigate these processes. The results of thermodynamic analysis demonstrate that the Fe element predominantly exists in the form of Fe₃O₄ during the oxidation melting process, while a portion of the Fe element present in the Fe₃O₄ phase could be replaced by the Zn element, resulting in the formation of the ZnFe₂O₄ phase. The experimental findings of the oxidative smelting demonstrate that the sulfur content in the high-zinc slag can be reduced to less than 1% during the oxidation of zinc concentrates, with S content of 0.06% and Zn content of 36.78&#xa0;wt.%. In addition, the primary physical phase of the obtained high-zinc slag is identified as Zn₂SiO₄, Fe₃O₄, ZnFe₂O_4, Ca₂ZnSi₂O₇, and ZnO. During the electrothermal reduction of high-zinc slag, the use of ferrosilicon alloy or coke as the reducing agent enables the effective reduction of the zinc content in the reduced slag to a level of less than 1%. This approach facilitates the achievement of deep reduction and recovery of valuable metals from the high-zinc slag.</p>