Ferrous ores play a remarkable role in the development of human activities, over the decades; iron is of the most common and crucial elements in construction field; from household appliance to automotive and aerospace equipment [1-2]. This statement is highly supported, by the fact that the iron content in ferrous ores has been diminished throughout the years. With that being said, it was considered of high importance to explore new physicochemical methods of separation and recovery of pure iron from hematite ores with significantly low percentages in iron [3].

In this scientific paper, the separation and recovery of fine iron particles from artificial mixtures of hematite and limestone is being studied, as the demand for iron has become more and more imperative. Limestone is met in great percentages in hematite ores as gangue mineral, which led to its usage in the artificial textures. Sodium oleate and dodecylamine are used as collector reagents in the testing procedure. 

The testing procedure includes preliminary tests in single minerals, in order to define the most effective operation points of the aforementioned mixture (pH, collector dosage, conditioning time). Afterwards, hematite and limestone are both subjected to flotation tests separately, in order to determine their behavior, in presence of sodium oleate and dodecylamine, as collector reagents. The results are really promising, as hematite’s recovery is particularly high; 84.5% and 93.5% using sodium oleate and dodecylamine, respectively. On the other hand, limestone in single-minerals tests has remarkable behavior, as the usage of sodium oleate leads to 93.5% recovery; while 98.5% recovery is achieved by using dodecylamine as collector reagent.