Fine: Coarse particle interactions and aggregation in sphalerite flotation

The behaviour of fine particles in the flotation separation of minerals has become of rapidly increasing importance as new, fine grained deposits are exploited. Fine particles float poorly and less-selectively under normal flotation conditions. The behaviour of fine ( 100μm) increased dramatically. In the presence of coarse particles at low pH, a high percentage of fine particles were recovered indicating a fine-coarse particle aggregation (“piggy-backing”) mechanism occuring during conditioning with Cu(II) alone.