Selective Flotation and Adsorption for Precious and Base Metal Recovery
This community develops chemical and physical methods to separate valuable metals—specifically gold, platinum, palladium, and copper—from ores, industrial waste, and complex liquid solutions.
The work centers on two primary technical pathways: froth flotation and selective adsorption. In flotation, researchers design specific collectors and depressants to separate target minerals like chalcopyrite and scheelite from gangue minerals such as calcite and quartz. In adsorption, the focus is on capturing dissolved metal ions from leachates or electronic waste solutions using specialized materials, including covalent organic frameworks, chitosan composites, and functionalized aerogels. A significant portion of the research addresses the recovery of precious metals from end-of-life electronics and spent automotive catalysts, as well as the processing of refractory gold ores. The methods are applied to both primary ore processing and secondary resource recovery, with a strong emphasis on the surface chemistry and interaction mechanisms between the metal species and the separating agents.
The largest share of the community's output is found in platinum research, accounting for 3.3% of all platinum research, and palladium research, also at 3.3%. Copper research represents the highest absolute number of papers within this group, with 2,892 papers, while gold research contributes 2,766 papers.
The community comprises 23,845 papers, publishing most frequently in Minerals Engineering, Hydrometallurgy, and Analytica Chimica Acta.
Recent work continues to focus on the development of novel collectors for phosphate and zinc oxide ores, as well as the application of covalent organic frameworks for the selective recovery of gold from electronic waste and complex aqueous matrices.