Abstract The net effects of the alterations of surface chemistry of copper sulphide minerals on their flotation upon oxidation are documented to be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on the extent of mineral surface oxidation. However, there were limited reports in literature that established a quantitative relationship between surface oxidation and flotation, which renders the exercise of flotation optimisation for oxidised ores difficult, until our recent work on chalcopyrite and chalcocite. The degree of surface oxidation was quantified as the ratio of hydrophilic to hydrophobic oxidation species, which were characterised by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and correlated with flotation recovery. Herein we tailored the method, which was previously developed on chalcopyrite and chalcocite, to establish a quantitative relationship between the degree of surface oxidation and flotation of bornite, one of the most valuable sources of commercial copper. The critical oxidation degree, beyond which bornite flotation becomes impossible, was determined to be 5.66. This is half that of chalcopyrite flotation and slightly higher than the upper limit of the range within which the critical degree of surface oxidation in chalcocite flotation was estimated to lie. Such knowledge betters the holistic understanding of the quantitative relationship between surface oxidation and copper sulphide flotation and will aid in providing insights on how to better handle ores of various oxidation degrees and susceptibilities. A comprehensive comparative case between bornite, chalcopyrite and chalcocite is presented in the paper.

中文翻译：

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浮选中斑铜矿表面氧化的临界程度

摘要 根据矿物表面氧化的程度，硫化铜矿物表面化学变化对其氧化浮选的净影响被证明是有益的或有害的。然而，在文献中建立表面氧化和浮选之间的定量关系的报道有限，这使得对氧化矿石进行浮选优化变得困难，直到我们最近对黄铜矿和辉铜矿的研究。表面氧化程度被量化为亲水与疏水氧化物质的比率，其特征在于 X 射线光电子能谱 (XPS)，并与浮选回收率相关。在这里，我们量身定制了之前在黄铜矿和辉铜矿上开发的方法，建立表面氧化程度与斑铜矿浮选之间的定量关系，斑铜矿是最有价值的商业铜来源之一。超过该临界氧化度就不可能浮选斑铜矿，确定为 5.66。这是黄铜矿浮选的一半，略高于黄铜矿浮选表面氧化临界程度估计所在范围的上限。这些知识有助于全面了解表面氧化与硫化铜浮选之间的定量关系，并将有助于提供有关如何更好地处理各种氧化程度和敏感性的矿石的见解。文中给出了斑铜矿、黄铜矿和辉铜矿之间的综合比较案例。