Researchers have discovered a new way to separate gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals from ore using the flotation processing method, reports MEI Online. 

In flotation, the minerals are crushed into small particles then floated to separate the metals from the waste rock, using a “collector” that attaches to the particles allowing them to be skimmed off.

The new process, described in the ACS journal Langmuir, uses water-repelling nanoparticles. MEI says in experiments using glass beads to simulate the minerals, recovery rates were near 100%.

Image is from the abstract of the article in Langmuir, titled “Nanoparticle Flotation Collectors II: The Role of Nanoparticle Hydrophobicity” by Songtao Yang and Robert Pelton.