Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, February 1972. — pp. 196-209The concepts involved in flotation research are discussed and aims are presented. Three different methods of investigation can be used, all of which are applied at the National Institute for Metallurgy (N.I.M.), and these are the empirical, trial and error method, the chemical engineering method, and the physicochemical approach. This paper is devoted to the last of these.
Because of the complexity of the physicochemical interactions involved, the work has, to a large extent, been concentrated on only one aspect, viz. the interaction between the mineral surface and reagents in solution, which was considered of major importance in the understanding of the process.
A detailed discussion is also presented of the progress made in the understanding of the interaction between sulphide minerals and thiol reagents, which is of more general application.
