Process for beneficiation of non-sulfide iron-free ores

A process for the beneficiation of non-sulfide, iron-free ores which comprises classifying the ore to provide particles of flotation size, slurrying the sized ore in aqueous medium, conditioning the slurry with an effective amount of a combination of about 99 to about 5 weight percent of a fatty acid derived from a vegetable or animal oil and, correspondingly, from about 1 to about 95 weight percent of a partial ester of a polycarboxylic acid having at least one free carboxylic acid group, and floating the desired ore by froth flotation, said partial ester having the structure:

• ##STR18## wherein R' is a primary or secondary alkyl group of about 8 to 18 carbon atoms, n is an integer of about 1-10 and R is a bivalent grouping selected from --CH.sub.2 -- .sub.m wherein m is an integer of 1 to 6, --CH.dbd.CH--, --CHOH--CHOH--, ##STR19## ortho, meta, and para, --C.sub.6 H.sub.8 --, and --C.sub.6 H.sub.10.