Mechanistic insights into stepwise activation of malachite for enhancing surface reactivity and flotation performance

Malachite is a common copper oxide mineral that is often enriched using the sulfidization-xanthate flotation method.Currently,the direct sulfidization method cannot yield copper concentrate products.Therefore,a new sulfidization flotation process was developed to promote the efficient recovery of malachite.In this study,Cu^(2+) was used as an activator to interact with the sample surface and increase its reaction sites,thereby strengthening the mineral sulfidization process and reactivity.Compared to single copper ion activation,the flota-tion effect of malachite significantly increased after stepwise Cu^(2+) activation.Zeta potential,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy(ToF-SIMS),scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometry(SEM-EDS),and atomic force microscopy(AFM)analysis results indicated that the adsorption of S species was significantly enhanced on the mineral surface due to the increase in active Cu sites after Cu^(2+) stepwise activation.Meanwhile,the proportion of active Cu-S spe-cies also increased,further improving the reaction between the sample surface and subsequent collectors.Fourier-transform infrared spec-troscopy(FT-IR)and contact angle tests implied that the xanthate species were easily and stably adsorbed onto the mineral surface after Cu^(2+) stepwise activation,thereby improving the hydrophobicity of the mineral surface.Therefore,the copper sites on the malachite sur-face after Cu^(2+) stepwise activation promote the reactivity of the mineral surface and enhance sulfidization flotation of malachite.