5. Conclusions

• There is a trade-off between the pH of the slurry, surfactants and the mineral surface for maximum flotation performance. It can thus be concluded that the length of alkyl chain, arrangement of atoms, nature and type of bonds present within the surfactants and regulation of pH in the flotation pulp are solely for an effective and successful flotation.

Conflict of interest

Author details

India

25

Abhyarthana Pattanaik\* and Rayasam Venugopal

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: abhyap10@gmail.com

Department of Fuel and Mineral Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad,

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Role of Surfactants in Mineral Processing: An Overview DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85947


As discussed earlier, froth flotation has the ability to treat any mineral and thus reigns supreme as it is the most versatile concentration process for ore fines. A universal solution for all minerals is not possible but it depends on a case-by-case basis as each mineral ore has different compositions. The challenging aspect of the interaction of value and gangue minerals of any ore could be overcome by specifically improved reagents. A universal specific reagent recipe cannot be proposed for any ore flotation due to variation of mineralogical composition of different ores, tailings and slimes. The knowledge and research about surfactant chemistry have to be given due recognition and used judiciously through encouraging innovative, simple and customized reagent regimes for given ore deposits.
