The recycling of metals represents an important factor for resource conservation and for independence from other countries. Especially for refractory metals, this is an unavoidable process, as these materials often constitute critical components and are usually mined in politically unstable countries. The zinc process comprises one possibility for recycling of hard metals. This is a direct process and currently the most commonly used one. The processing can be done via liquid and/or vapour zinc. This work deals more precisely with the vaporous variant. For this purpose, a series of experiments were carried out to provide more detailed information about the behaviour of the hard metal specimen in contact with zinc. The disintegration of the individual samples is examined and conclusions are drawn about the influencing factors. The highest yields resulted at a high temperature, long holding time, a large Zn:Co ratio, a small tungsten carbide grain size and a low Co content in the sample. This trend can also be seen in experiments with liquid zinc. Different temperature ranges result in differentiated intermetallic phases. The trend shows that the zinc content increases towards the edge of the sample.