Abstract

The presence of clay leads to low recoveries in the process of flotation of copper ores which is also reflected in a decrease of the concentrates grades. Due to this, the scientific interest in studying the effect and mechanisms of action of clay minerals in the flotation process has increased, which has resulted in a better understanding of the physicochemical foundations behind. This paper reports a comprehensive bibliographic review in which the mechanisms through which clay minerals cause harmful effects in the flotation process are explained. The main studies reported to date are systematised and classified in five topics in this paper: i) rheology of clayey pulps; ii) specific reagents for dispersing clays; iii) interactions between clays and valuable minerals in saline media; iv) mechanical entrainment and v) copper oxidation on clay coating. The strategies currently used to improve the processing of clayey mineral pulps have been insufficient to achieve optimal operational results, so the following work is intended to promote the development of new technologies that allow improving the performance of these processes. In this review, research opportunities which consider the use of nanoparticles, based reagents organic polymers, technologies using seawater inter exposed.