Advances in Novel Beneficiation Technology of Critical Minerals

A special issue of Separations (ISSN 2297-8739). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Separations".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2025 | Viewed by 477

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Civil and Resource Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: mineral processing; leaching; flotation; solid liquid separation; comminution; grinding; sorting; surface chemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Critical minerals such as copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements are the fundamental material base underpinning many of today's rapidly evolving clean energy technologies, from wind turbines and power grids to electric vehicles.

Beneficiation techniques such as sensor-based ore sorting, flotation, magnetic separation, gravity separation, and leaching are employed for recovering critical minerals economically from ores on a large scale in mineral processing. With the clean energy transition gathering pace, the demand for these minerals is growing rapidly. Technological breakthroughs in processing, equipment, reagents, etc., are needed to increase the efficiency and greenness beneficiation of critical minerals.

This Special Issue on “Advances in novel beneficiation technology of critical minerals” aims to publish high-quality papers on the recent process of critical minerals beneficiation technology. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Application of dry and wet pre-discarding technology in low-grade ore beneficiation;
  • Refractory copper/cobalt oxide ore flotation technology: reagents and equipment;
  • Development of high-efficiency leaching technology;

We are looking forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Jue Kou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • critical minerals
  • ore beneficiation
  • sensor-based ore sorting
  • flotation
  • gravity separation
  • magnetic separation
  • leaching

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 6357 KiB  
Article
Study on Floatation Separation of Molybdenite and Talc Based on Crystal Surface Anisotropy
by Qidong Zhang, Xiaoli Li, Zhifang Hu, Bowen Gao and Chen Liu
Separations 2025, 12(5), 123; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations12050123 - 13 May 2025
Viewed by 130
Abstract
Talcose molybdenite resources are abundant but resource utilization is low. The floatation separation of molybdenite (MoS2) and talc is challenging due to their similar natural hydrophobicity and layered structures. This study investigates the surface properties and interaction mechanisms between these minerals [...] Read more.
Talcose molybdenite resources are abundant but resource utilization is low. The floatation separation of molybdenite (MoS2) and talc is challenging due to their similar natural hydrophobicity and layered structures. This study investigates the surface properties and interaction mechanisms between these minerals to improve their separation efficiency. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm that the basal planes of both minerals are hydrophobic, while their edge surfaces are hydrophilic. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and DLVO theory reveal that molybdenite and talc particles aggregate in neutral/acidic conditions but disperse in alkaline solutions due to altered surface forces. Floatation experiments demonstrate that pulp pH is the key controlling factor—alkaline conditions (pH > 10) effectively reduce hetero-aggregation, enabling selective molybdenite recovery. These findings provide critical insights into optimizing floatation processes for talcose molybdenite ores, enhancing resource utilization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Novel Beneficiation Technology of Critical Minerals)
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