As high-grade and easily exploitable copper ores have been getting depleted, the development of flotation techniques for copper ores with low-grade and small grain size is becoming an important issue. To process these kinds of ores, fine grinding is essential to achieve sufficient liberation; however, flotation rate of finely ground minerals (<5 µm) is substantially low due to the low collision probability between air bubbles and mineral particles. Agglomeration-flotation using surfactant-stabilized oil emulsions was effective to improve the recovery of finely ground chalcopyrite. In this study, the effects of emulsifiers in the presence of co-existing minerals and ions on agglomeration-flotation of finely ground chalcopyrite were investigated.

The addition of anionic emulsifiers (SDS, KAX) could stabilize the oil–water emulsion and produce smaller oil droplets, which improve Cu recovery in the agglomeration-flotation of chalcopyrite and quartz from ~68% (without emulsifier) to >97% (with emulsifier). When Ca²⁺ and quartz co-existed, the amounts of SDS used as emulsifier were reduced due to its adsorption onto the surface of Ca²⁺ activated quartz, which caused the coalescence of oil droplets resulting in low Cu recovery (i.e., 81% with quartz only; 44% with quartz and Ca²⁺). Meanwhile, emulsified oil stabilized by KAX was not affected by the presence of Ca²⁺ and quartz, and high Cu recovery (~83%) could be obtained.

随着高品位、易开采的铜矿日趋枯竭，低品位、小粒度铜矿浮选技术的发展成为重要课题。加工这类矿石，要达到充分的解放，精磨是必不可少的；然而，由于气泡和矿物颗粒之间的碰撞概率很低，细磨矿物 (<5 µm) 的浮选率非常低。使用表面活性剂稳定的油乳液进行附聚浮选可有效提高细磨黄铜矿的回收率。在这项研究中，研究了在共存矿物和离子存在下乳化剂对细磨黄铜矿附聚浮选的影响。

添加阴离子乳化剂（SDS、KAX）可以稳定油水乳液并产生更小的油滴，从而将黄铜矿和石英的附聚浮选中的铜回收率从~68%（不含乳化剂）提高到>97%（含乳化剂）。乳化剂）。当 Ca ²⁺和石英共存时，用作乳化剂的 SDS 用量减少，因为它吸附在 Ca ²⁺活化石英表面，导致油滴聚结，导致铜回收率低（即 81%仅使用石英；44% 使用石英和 Ca ²⁺）。同时，KAX稳定的乳化油不受Ca ²⁺和石英存在的影响，可以获得高Cu回收率（~83%）。