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Below are all of the anionic collectors commonly used for sulfide minerals are seen to be somewhat similar in structure, each having a single sulfur atom double-bonded to either a carbon or phosphorous atom. Because of this similarity, substantially all of the sulfide minerals can be floated with varying degrees of success by any of the sulfhydric collectos.
A number of similar compounds also have been employed as flotation collectors. A more detailed discussion of these materials is made on pages 10 to 12 of this bulletin.
Both the alkali metal xanthates and dithiophosphates yield oily liquids as coproducts in the formation of metal salts. Therefore, it is suggested that this oily liquid is the effective collector agent and that all active collectors are oily.
That assumption, however, is not necessarily true. For example, potassium diethyl dithiocarbamate and similar compounds do not form oily liquids, and yet the are effective collectors for sulfide minerals.
Fatty acids or fatty acid soaps are the most commonly used collectors for the basic non-sulfide minerals such as calcite, fluorite, calcium phosphate, hematite, etc. Silicate or acidic minerals are generally floated with cationic amines. Both the fatty acid and amine collectors have longer carbon chain length (12-18 carbons) than do the sulfide mineral collectors. Use of these collectors is discussed in the “Applications” section.
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