A novel method for recovering zinc from zinc ferrite by reduction roasting–ammonia leaching was studied in this paper. The reduction thermodynamic of zinc ferrite by CO was analyzed. The effects of roasting parameters on the phase transformation and conversion rate of zinc fer-rite, and the leaching behavior of zinc from the reductive roasted samples by ammonia leaching, were experimentally investigated. The mineralo-gical phase compositions and chemical compositions of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and chemical titration methods, re-spectively. The results showed that most of the zinc ferrite was transformed to zinc oxide and magnetite after weak reduction roasting. 86.43％ of the zinc ferrite was transformed to zinc oxide under the optimum conditions: CO partial pressure of 25％, roasting temperature of 750°C, and roasting duration of 45 min. Finally, under the optimal leaching conditions, 78.12％ of zinc was leached into the solution from the roasted zinc fer-rite while all iron-bearing materials were kept in the leaching residue. The leaching conditions are listed as follows: leaching duration of 90 min, ammonia solution with 6 mol/L concentration, leaching temperature of 50°C, solid-to-liquid ratio of 40 g/L, and stirring speed of 200 r/min.