Process for separating copper and iron minerals from molybdenite

摘要

A process for separating molybdenite from copper and iron ores is disclosed. A copper concentrate containing molybdenite is treated during an attritioning stage with a surfactant which is an alkyl ester of sodium and/or calcium succinic or succinamic acids and a molybdenite concentrate is recovered by flotation. The molybdenite concentrate contains at least 90% of the original molybdenite and less than 5% of the undesirable ores.