Solution chemical reactions and diagrammatic approaches

In 1940 s, Taggart (Taggart et al 1930) proposed that flotation behavior of minerals is determined by chemical reactions between reagents and metallic species of minerals in solution. The solubility products of reaction compounds is normally used as the criteria. 

Competitive reaction between collector ion and hydroxyl ions in sulfide flotation 

In the flotation pulp of sulfide minerals, the reaction between collector and metallic salt 

K is called the Barsky s constant, which shows competitive reaction between reagent and hydroxyl ions in flotation. For example, the flotation of pyrite, galena and chrysocolla by ethyl xanthate as a function of pH is shown in Fig. 4.39. 

For galena-ethyl xanthate system, the reaction constants are  

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