The presence of aluminosilicates has a deleterious effect on mineral processing operations such as grinding, flotation, dewatering and tailings due to these silicates influence slurry rheology, adhesion to surface of mineral particles and reagent consumption. In this current study, the objective was to identify mechanisms that improve the flotation performance of sulphide minerals. The flotation response of gold-bearing pyrite and arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite with a high aluminosilicate content was investigated. Solely traditional sulphide collectors have not been achieving a satisfactory metallurgical recovery. Hence a new range of reagents has been developed by Clariant. These reagents have presented ability to improve the copper and gold recoveries and concentrate grade of sulfide ores with high aluminosilicate content issues. Addition of Clariant products to the flotation of ore with high silicate content achieved the gold recovery of 80%, while xanthate and dithiophosphate did not exceeded 40% of metallurgical recovery. Furthermore, the copper recovery from ore with silicate gangue issues reached 90.3% through Clariant collector dosage. These results support the efficacy of Clariant products to improve the copper and gold recovery even though the high aluminosilicate content.
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