The Industrial Practice of Sulfide Mineral Collectors

Froth flotation is the most widely used and economic means of concentrating metal sulfide ores such as those containing copper, lead, zinc, nickel, molybdenum, and pyrite. This chapter presents common industrial thio collectors used for sulfide mineral flotation, including chemical structures and properties, the industrial use of reagents with special emphasis on how thio collectors interact with other factors of the flotation system such as dosage, changes of collectors, frother/collector interaction, selectivity, particle size. Thio collectors perform by rendering valuable sulfide minerals hydrophobic. They consist of a polar functional group, hydrophilic in character and sulfur-associated, which attaches to the mineral, and a nonpolar hydrophobic portion, which is the driving force leading to bubble attachment. One of the most consistent thio collector correlations observed was the influence of excessive collector dosage. Another consistent and important observation on the use of existing thio collectors is the very strong relationship between collector dosage and selectivity of metal sulfide minerals over iron sulfide minerals.