Eco-Friendly and Biodegradable Depressants in Chalcopyrite Flotation: A Review

ABSTRACT

Depressants are critical reagents for the selective separation of minerals in froth flotation. They serve a vital role in preferentially making the gangue minerals hydrophilic and prevent them from reporting to the mineral-rich froth phase. Current practice involves the use of inorganic depressants, which are toxic and non-biodegradable. Environmentally friendly, flexible and affordable flotation depressants are needed due to the depletion of easy-to-process high-grade ores as well as sustainability and environmental concerns. This paper discusses various organic depressants that have been adopted for selective depression of unwanted minerals in chalcopyrite flotation. The origin and chemistry, organic depressant-gangue minerals interaction mechanism, and the use of organic depressants in the most common chalcopyrite-flotation instances, including chalcopyrite separation from galena, molybdenite, sphalerite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, talc, serpentine and carbonaceous materials, are discussed. This review shows that organic depressants can partially or fully replace current inorganic depressants used in suppressing both sulfide and non-sulfide gangue minerals in chalcopyrite flotation. In this review, a well-detailed and well-referenced discussion is provided for the current state of organic depressants in chalcopyrite flotation, as well as a valuable discussion is provided to comparatively evaluate the depression performance of the various reported organic depressants. Finally, suggestions are made regarding future research challenges and directions. The recent advancements, developing features, and research prospects discussed in this article will provide a helpful reference for academics who want to delve deeper into the greening of chalcopyrite flotation process.

KEYWORDS:

• Flotation
• Chalcopyrite
• Biopolymers
• Depressants
• Selective depression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributions

Conceptualization, A. K. Saim; Original draft preparation: A. K. Saim; Writing, reviewing and editing, F. K. Darteh; Investigation, F. K. Darteh.