Molecular modeling of mineral surface reactions in flotation

Abstract

Flotation is the single most important method of mineral processing and is widely used for the concentration of metal ores, industrial minerals, and coals. Several investigations were carried out during the last century, and the flotation literature was immense, particularly on selective collectors and their interaction mechanisms on sulfide, oxide, and silicate minerals. However, it is often difficult to determine experimentally the fundamental processes affecting the separation procedures. The summary presented by Kitchener (1984) on the innovations and discoveries of various collector molecules in flotation shows that the reagents’ selectivity toward certain mineral surfaces is clueless. It is invariably a process of trial-and-error experimentation to reach an optimized reagent scheme with different types of organic molecules and their modified forms in order to separate valuable minerals from ores by flotation process.