Chemical Fate Studies of Mining Reagents

The decomposition behavior of several mining reagents (i.e., xanthate, dithiocarbamate, dithiophosphate and dithiophosphinate) used widely in mineral processing operations was studied. Decomposition has been reported to generate toxic compounds such as CS₂ (carbon disulfide) and COS (carbonyl sulfide), causing severe concerns to SHE (safety, health and environment). With the global trend of becoming sustainable/green and the increasingly strict regulations, the mining industry is facing an unprecedented pressure to handle the problematic reagents that can lead to the adverse impacts. Unfortunately, the interests of the prior research are biased on the performance of the reagents to optimize the efficiency and lower the cost, while the examination of the decomposition behavior is almost neglected. Under the circumstance of poor endeavor found in the prior investigations, the knowledge gap awaits to be filled in a systematic and integrated manner to recommend countermeasures for those problematic reagents. It can be seen from those fragmented studies collected from literature that only a limited understanding of thermal or aqueous decomposition behavior is achieved. It is far from su