The synergistic effect of mixture of collectors on adsorption behaviour on chalcopyrite

The potential beneficial effects of using two or more reagents are widely known and using mixtures of collectors in flotation has shown to increase both the recovery and selectivity simultaneously. In this work, the adsorption behaviour of sodium isopropyl xanthate (SIPX) and dithiophosphinate (DTPI) was investigated. These collectors were selected as strong and selective collectors respectively for the flotation of chalcopyrite. The adsorption behaviour of these collectors, combined in different ratios and order of addition was investigated by electrochemical and adsorption experiments at pH 9.2.The results showed that both the ratio of collectors in mixtures and sequence of addition were important. The maximum synergistic effect was observed at 30:70 (SIPX:DTPI) ratio when DTPI was added initially and at 50:50 ratio when the collectors were added simultaneously.