The recovery of elements of interest from tailings has been increasingly studied to reduce their generation and mitigate disposal risks, and in iron ore production the reality is no different. This work presents a comprehensive assessment of parameters in bench scale tests for two innovative possible solutions for recovering iron minerals contained in ultrafine tailings: a new collector reagent formulation composed of a mixture of amidoamine, etheramine and a frother, without the need of applying a depressant in reverse cationic flotation, preceded by the application of ultrasound as a tool for physical particle dispersion. The new collector presented better results than its constituents separately. The presence of a frother in its composition helps diminishing water recovery and entrainment. The main limiting factor for enhancing the quality of the concentrate is the fraction of alumina in the feed. Molecular simulations gave initial insights on the mechanisms behind the new collector and the gangue minerals interaction. The application of ultrasound at alkaline pH promotes better particle dispersion ensuring sufficient exposed surfaces for selective adsorption of the new collector. The influence of the intensity and residence time applied at the sonication step, as well as the percentage of solids are evaluated. The study shows that it is possible to increase the metallurgical recovery by 6 % for a difficult to process, goethite-rich slimes sample with 51% Fe from the Iron Quadrangle in Brazil.