The furnace campaign of a blast furnace represents an important factor for the iron-making industry due to the fact that maintenance such as relining is not only costly but also time consuming. The furnace campaign is largely determined by the functionality of the lining, which is influenced by wear mechanisms and the damaging behavior of certain elements.To these unwanted elements that may attack the lining belong, for example, Zinc (Zn), Lead (Pb), Potassium (K), and Chlorine (Cl). In this paper, the distribution of Zn, Pb, K, and Cl within the lining of a blast furnace at the end of its furnace campaign is investigated and discussed. The results demonstrate that the content of some elements (Zn, Cl, Pb) in the lining and also their penetration depth significantly varies over the blast furnace height. For Zn and Pb, the highest contents (43 g Zn kg À1 and 0.14 g Pb kg À1 ) are observed in the inner lining stones (adjacent to the hot metal), whereas for Cl, a contrary distribution pattern is observed. The highest contents are detected in the outer stones of the lining at the top of the blast furnace.