A system for separating mineral particles of interest from an ore features mineral processing operations/stages/circuits configured to receive an ore, or mineral particles or concentrates formed by processing the ore, and provide processed mineral particles or concentrates, or a waste stream, for further enhanced mineral separation downstream processing; an enhanced mineral separation processor having a collection apparatus located therein, the collection apparatus having a collection surface configured with a functionalized polymer including molecules having a functional group configured to attract the mineral particles of interest to the collection surface, the enhanced mineral separation processor receive the processed mineral particles or concentrates, or the waste stream, and provide further enhanced downstream processed mineral particles or concentrates, or a further enhanced downstream processed waste stream; and a high intensity conditioning operation, stage or circuit configured to apply a high intensity form of energy to the processed mineral particles or concentrates, or the waste stream, prior to further enhanced mineral separation downstream processing by the enhanced mineral separation processor.

A system includes a collection processor configured to receive tailings of a flotation process, the tailings having mineral particles of interest; and at least one collection apparatus located in the collection processor. The collection apparatus has a collection surface configured with a functionalized polymer having molecules with a functional group that attract the mineral particles of interest to the collection surface. The flotation process has scavenger circuits that provide scavenger circuit feeds having scavenger tails. The system features enhanced scavenger circuits having the collection apparatus located in the collection processor and configured to receive the scavenger circuit feeds and provide enhanced scavenger circuit feeds having enhanced scavenger tails and enhanced scavenger concentrate for further processing by the system.

According to the invention there is provided a method of processing a mixture of minerals including the steps of: (a) providing a mixture of minerals which includes a metal containing mineral and one or more unwanted gangue minerals; (b) achieving a contact between the mixture of minerals and polymeric material that includes a mineral binding moiety which selectively binds to the metal containing mineral; and (c) separating the gangue minerals and the polymeric material which has the metal containing mineral bound thereto.

A modified selective recirculation circuit has a loading stage, a stripping stage and a filtering stage for use in processing a feed stream or slurry containing mineral particles. The stripping stage forms a first loop with the loading stage, a second loop with the filtering stage. The loading stage has a loading mixer and a loading washing screen. The stripping stage has a stripping mixer and a stripping washing screen. The loading mixer receives the slurry and causes barren media in the circuit to contact with the slurry so that the mineral particles in the slurry are loaded onto the barren media. The media is directed to the stripping stage where the mineral particles are removed from the media. The barren media is recycled to the loading stage. The stripping solution recovered from the filtering stage is returned to the stripping stage and the mineral particles are discharged as concentrate.

A collector composition and process to treat ores with a collector composition that comprises a nitrile group-containing compound of the formula (I)

##STR00001##

wherein R is a saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched, hydrocarbon group containing 8 to 26 carbon atoms,

##STR00002##

R is a saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched, hydrocarbon group containing 1 to 26 carbon atoms or a hydrogen atom or (-(D).sub.j-C.sub.nH.sub.2nCN) group or R-((A).sub.m-(B)).sub.x group, A is (OCH.sub.2CH.sub.2); (OCH(CH.sub.3)CH.sub.2) or (OCH(CH.sub.2CH.sub.3)CH.sub.2), B is (OC.sub.pH.sub.2p), D is (CH.sub.2CH.sub.2O); (CH(CH.sub.3)CH.sub.2O) or (CH(CH.sub.2CH.sub.3)CH.sub.2O), x is 0 or 1, R is hydrocarbon group containing 1 to 4 carbon atoms, Y is halide or methylsulfate, m, j are each independently an integer of 0-5, R is a saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched, hydrocarbon group containing 1 to 26 carbon atoms, and n and p are each independently an integer of 1 to 5.

A copper/molybdenum separation system uses sea water in the roughing circuit and desalinated water in cleaning circuit. In both roughing circuit and cleaning circuit, hydrophobic engineered media are used to recover the mineral particles of interest. The cleaning circuit includes a molybdenum loading stage configured to contact the conditioned pulp with the engineered media in an agitated reaction chamber, and load the hydrophobic molybdenite on the engineered media.

A substrate for use in an aqueous slurry has a polymeric coating to provide a compliant and sticky surface. The polymer coating has a chemical to render the surface hydrophobic so as to attract hydrophobic or hydrophobized mineral particles in the slurry. The surface has a surface roughness structure in the nano-scale to micro-scale range. The substrate can take the form of a conveyor belt, a bead, a mesh, an impeller, a filter or a flat surface. The substrate can also be an open-cell foam. The polymeric coating can be modified with tackifiers; plasticizers; crosslinking agents; chain transfer agents; chain extenders; adhesion promoters; aryl or alky copolymers; fluorinated copolymers and/or additives; hydrophobicizing agents such as hexamethyldisilazane; inorganic particles such as silica, hydrophobic silica, and/or fumed hydrophobic silica; MQ resin; and/or other additives to control and modify the properties of the polymer.

In one example, a method includes providing a pulp composed of a combination of particulate materials including particles of a target material. The pulp is mixed with a collector composed of anisotropic particles having at least two separate spatial domains that have different physiochemical properties, and the mixture of pulp and collector is fed into an aqueous solution containing air bubbles.

A system is provided for processing a circulating load in comminution circuit of a mineral separation process for separating mineral particles of interest from an ore, featuring: a coarse screen and an enhanced mineral separation circuit (EMSC). The coarse screen may be configured to receive a cyclone underflow having mineral particles of interest and forming part of the circulating load of the comminution circuit, and provide coarse screen feeds for further processing. The enhanced mineral separation circuit may include a collection processor configured to receive one of the coarse screen feeds, and may also include at least one collection apparatus located in the collection processor, the at least one collection apparatus having a collection surface configured with a functionalized polymer comprising a plurality of molecules having a functional group configured to attract the mineral particles of interest to the collection surface, and provide enhanced mineral separation circuit feeds for further processing in the system.

(Technical problems to be solved) Providing a method for selecting minerals containing arsenic (Means for solving the problems) A peptide comprising an amino acids sequence according to the following formula: (TSNQ)-(HPW)-(ED)-(HPWRK)-(LIVFA)-(LIVFA)-(LIVFA)-(TSNQ)-(HPW)-(LIVFA)-(TSNQ)-(LIVFA) wherein one amino acid is respectively selected from each group defined by paired parentheses.