The flotation reagent used in the flotation machine is the main factor that regulates the flotability of the minerals. The insufficient amount of the flotation reagent can not reach the regulative purpose and it is difficult to sort the minerals; while the excessive amount can also cause a reaction, which will not only reduce the quality of concentrate and lose the selectivity, but also be wasteful. In fact, in the flotation process, simply adding a small amount of collectors can promote the form of hydrophobic film on the mineral surface. The amount of the reagent used to inhibit and activate certain minerals also should be less. Therefore, in actual use, the right amount and the selectivity should be particularly emphasized.

As for the different ores, there nature is various so that the fluctuation range of the reagent amount is also different. Even though they belong to the same type of ores, because of the difference of the specific conditions of the deposit and the content of the  useful minerals and gangue, theflotation pharmaceutical dosage also differs from each other. The approximate range of the commonly used flotation reagent dosage can reference to the following data: The collector dosage is 20 to 1500g / t. 

The control and adjustment of the optimum dosage of the flotation reagent in the pulp are mainly conducted through laboratory experiments and industrial experiment to understand the interrelationship between the various pharmaceutical and mineral in the flotation circuit as well as the correlations among the concentration of various pharmaceutical. For example, when conducting the flotation of any copper sulfide and iron minerals, the necessary concentration of the xanthate in the pulp is increased with the increasing pH value.