Contemporary Understanding and Developments in the Flotation Theory of Non-Ferrous Ores

Thermodynamic concepts are shown to be inadequate when applied to the complex multi-staged and fast formation process of a flotation complex and the relevance is demonstrated of studying the interaction kinetics of a mineral particle and a gas bubble. A mechanism is proposed explaining the formation of flotation contact, in which both the ionic and physical forms of sorption, active with respect to the gas-liquid interface, play the key role. Sorption is physically represented by either ion-molecular associates or long-chain collectors. While in the flotation of semiconductor sulfides the physically sorbed collector form is formed by an electrochemical mechanism and is represented by xanthate-dixanthogenide associates, where the flotation of dielectric minerals is activated by heavy metal ions, xanthate ion-metal xanthate associates can take on this role. Physically, the collector's sorption form is present in the collector-free flotation, where polysulfide forms act as the former. It is shown that metal xanthate - dixanthogen - xanthate ion mixtures forming when flotation is activated by copper have especially high collector performance.