Advances in Sustainable Utilization of Metals: Recovery and Recycling

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701). This special issue belongs to the section "Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 263

Special Issue Editors

Faculty of Land Resource Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China
Interests: comprehensive utilization of secondary resources; flotation theory and reagent research and development; industrial wastewater purification and resource utilization

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Land Resource Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China
Interests: basic research on flotation; coarse particle flotation; ion flotation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With accelerated global industrialization and expanding technology industries, the consumption of metal resources has continued to increase. The traditional linear model of "mining–processing–disposal" has resulted in escalating environmental and resource problems such as resource depletion, energy waste and pollution. Against this backdrop, the sustainable and comprehensive utilization of metals, particularly via recycling and a circular economy, has become crucial for mitigating resource constraints and reducing environmental loads. As such, advances in the sustainable utilization of metals via recovery processes and recycling are garnering more attention. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Jinfang Lv
Dr. Dongxia Feng
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • solid waste
  • metal recovery
  • separation
  • metal recycling
  • sustainable utilization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 2552 KiB  
Article
Selective Oxidation Depression of Copper-Activated Sphalerite by H2O2 During Chalcopyrite Flotation
by Peiqiang Fan, Xiong Tong, Xian Xie, Qiang Song, Yuanlin Ma, Bin Han, Haitao Fu and Zhiming Lu
Metals 2025, 15(7), 813; https://doi.org/10.3390/met15070813 - 21 Jul 2025
Viewed by 64
Abstract
Using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a simple and easily accessible reagent, as a selective depressant, flotation separation experiments of chalcopyrite and copper-activated sphalerite were conducted. The micro-flotation tests of single minerals indicated that H2O2 selectively depresses copper-activated [...] Read more.
Using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a simple and easily accessible reagent, as a selective depressant, flotation separation experiments of chalcopyrite and copper-activated sphalerite were conducted. The micro-flotation tests of single minerals indicated that H2O2 selectively depresses copper-activated sphalerite and exerted almost no depressant effect on chalcopyrite. In the flotation tests of artificially mixed minerals, a copper concentrate with a grade of 29.95% and a recovery of 87.30% was obtained, while the zinc content was only 5.76%, demonstrating a significant separation effect. The results of contact angle measurement, Zeta potential measurement, surface adsorption analysis, and XPS analysis suggested that H2O2 had a stronger oxidation capacity on the surface of copper-activated sphalerite than chalcopyrite, generating hydrophilic hydroxyl groups on the surface of sphalerite and preventing further adsorption of the collector Z-200 on the surface of sphalerite. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Sustainable Utilization of Metals: Recovery and Recycling)
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