Design of Sulfide Mineral Collectors Using Molecular Simulation

Direct Applicability to Industry:

New methods of recovering valuable minerals from sulfide ores for sustainable utilization of natural base metal resources are required urgently. This must be accomplished in an environmentally friendly manner.

Nature of Problem:

The development of more powerful and selective reagents that will only adsorb on target minerals for effective fine particle flotation will be accomplished by developing a molecular level understanding of reagent-mineral interactions thereby establishing the corresponding structure-function relationship.

Financial and Environmental Impact:

Targeting specific collectors with fundamental understanding of their actions and reactions will help to eliminate cumbersome and expensive trial and error formulation studies. This will save money for the processor and avoid the use of excess collectors that could have a threat to the environment.

Lead PI: Zhenghe Xu

Co PI(s): Phillip Choi, Qingxia Liu

Students: Monir Hosseini