Patent ID: 8329039

Claim:
A process for separating at least one first material from a mixture comprising the at least one first material and at least one second material, comprising: (A) suspending the mixture comprising at least one first material and at least one second material and at least one magnetic particle in a suitable suspension medium to obtain a suspension, (B) setting the pH of the suspension to a value at which the at least one first material and the at least one magnetic particle bear opposite surface charges to form an agglomerate, (C) separating the agglomerate from the suspension by application of a magnetic field to obtain a separated agglomerate and (D) dissociating the separated agglomerate by setting the pH to a value at which the at least one first material and the at least one magnetic particle bear the same surface charges to obtain the at least one first material, wherein the at least one first material is selected from the group consisting of sulfidic ores and mixtures thereof and the at least one second material is selected from the group consisting of an oxidic metal compound, a hydroxidic metal compound and mixtures thereof.