It has been well-known that fine grinding of a material changes considerably the physico-chemical characters of the resulting material due to grinding and that the physico-chemical variation of ground materials has different effects on their flotation behavior. This phenomenon, called mechanochemical change of ground material, has not been paid attention in the field of fine particle flotation. In the present paper, brochantite, an oxidized copper mineral, was selected as a test sample. The mechanochemical change of brochantite with its fine size reduction was studied by means of X-ray diffraction method and differential thermal analysis. Then, solubility and floatability of brochantite were examined with change of its finess through a series of solubility tests and flotation tests. As a consequence, it was found that with fine grinding brochantite particles were easily brought into amorphous state, causing higher solubility and lower floatability.

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