Gravity separation excels at recovering coarse and free particles of gold and silver, typically those larger than 0.5 mm, using equipment such as shaking tables and jigs to concentrate the heavy mineral fraction.

Flotation is then applied to treat sulfide-associated precious metals, where carefully selected collectors and frothers enable the fine particles of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium (e.g., gold-bearing pyrite, silver-bearing galena, platinum group sulfides) to attach to air bubbles and float for collection.

Tailings management involves thickening the flotation tailings to reduce moisture to below 20 %, followed by cyanide detoxification protocols for gold-bearing residues, and paste backfill of cleaned tailings into underground voids to enhance mine stability and reduce surface storage.

In non-ferrous metallurgy, gravity separation serves as an effective pre-concentration step for dense ore minerals such as cassiterite (SnO₂), wolframite ((Fe,Mn)WO₄) and scheelite (CaWO-), using spirals or centrifugal concentrators to reject lighter gangue.

Flotation circuits are then tailored for sulfide ores of copper, lead, zinc, tin and nickel—such as chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, stannite and pentlandite—by adjusting pH and blending xanthate or thiophosphate collectors to achieve high selectivity.

Tailings from these processes are dewatered via filter presses to form stackable cakes, while polymer flocculants accelerate settling, and dry-stack tailings technology minimizes water usage and footprint in copper, bauxite, lead-zinc and nickel operations.

For iron ores, gravity separation with spirals or shaking tables effectively enriches magnetite and hematite by exploiting density differences, often followed by high-intensity magnetic separation to further purify concentrates.

When treating fine iron particles below 0.15 mm—such as finely ground hematite and specularite—flotation uses anionic collectors to float iron oxides away from siliceous gangue.

Tailings management in iron operations typically includes hydrocyclone classification to recover slimes, thickening to reclaim process water, and safe disposal of fine tailings in lined dry-stack facilities or deep-water tailings impoundments, with ceramic membrane filtration applied in water-scarce regions.

Heavy mineral sands—such as garnet, barite and ilmenite—are often upgraded by gravity separation on shaking tables or spiral concentrators to concentrate the high-density fraction.

Flotation is applied to non-metallic ores like silica sand and kaolin, where pH adjustment and selective collectors remove iron oxides and organic impurities from quartz, feldspar and clays.

Tailings from non-metallic operations are thickened and clarified to reclaim water, with acidic slimes from phosphate rock and sulfur extraction neutralized before discharge. Co-disposal techniques may combine gypsum by-product from phosphoric acid plants with filter-pressed tailings to reduce environmental impact.

Graphite concentrates for battery anodes are pre-upgraded by gravity separation on shaking tables or centrifugal separators to remove gangue minerals, then further refined by flotation to achieve high carbon purity.

Lithium-bearing spodumene ores (e.g., alpha-spodumene) undergo flotation with specialized collectors to separate spodumene from quartz and mica, while rare earth-bearing minerals in battery cathode recycling streams use froth flotation to recover cerium, praseodymium and neodymium phases.

Sustainable tailings management includes paste backfill to minimize surface footprint, closed-circuit water recycling to achieve near-zero discharge, and tailings re-mining to extract remaining critical minerals.

Rare‐earth ores such as monazite, bastnäsite, xenotime and loparite contain cerium, lanthanum, neodymium and yttrium, and are first processed by gravity separation on spirals or shaking tables to concentrate particles above 0.2 mm.

Flotation using fatty-acid collectors and amine reagents then separates these minerals from siliceous gangue.

Tailings are treated by sequential chemical leaching to recover remaining REEs, followed by ion-exchange cleanup to remove thorium and uranium, and secure dry-stack storage with impermeable liners to prevent leaching.