Abstract
This paper investigated the performance of Sodium Mercaptobenzothiazole (NMBT) as a collector in the flotation of Black Mountain ore. The ore contains metals such as lead, copper and zinc and the associated minerals of economic importance are chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite respectively, with traces of silver. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the collector and how pH affects the recovery of minerals in particular copper. The performance of the collector was influenced by mineral surface chemistry. The experimental test work was conducted at varying pH levels using Denver flotation cell in order to investigate the collector performance in a basic medium. The experiments were conducted at two different test runs of slightly basic solutions of pH 8.5 and 9.0. The results of both fresh ore and floated ore samples were analysed using XRF. Although Black mountain ore contains small quantities of copper as compared to other ores, a significant amount was recovered (±78% of the available copper in the ore), as an indication of the performance of NMBT.