Abstract
The main source of phosphate in Brazil are igneous rocks, which need to be concentrated through froth flotation to separate phosphate ore from the other minerals. Searching for new sources of reactants to be used in mineral processing, spent yeast cells (SYC), from a local brewery was tested. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was choose because its relative easy industrial grow, has no biological risk and can be found worldwide. Microflotation experiments were conducted in a modified Hallimondâs tube with high purity apatite mineral samples at pH 10 in order to investigate the influence of the collector dosage in the mineral recovery. The results showed that despite SYC has had lower recovery than collectors industrially adopted, it has a potential future use in mineral flotation as a cheap, biodegradable, eco-friendly, and sustainable reagent with no acquisition cost since the brewery complex is located less than 30 km from Catalão and Ouvidor mine sites in Brazil.
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