by air bubbles. About 300 g/tonne of ore is required for efficient separation. With increasing length of the hydrocarbon chain in xanthates, the efficiency of the hydrophobic action increases, but the selectivity to ore type decreases. The chain is shortest in sodium ethyl xanthate that makes it highly selective to copper, nickel, lead, gold, and zinc ores. Aqueous solutions (10%) with pH=7–11 are normally used in the process. This slurry (more properly called the pulp) of hydrophobic particles and hydrophilic particles is then introduced to tanks known as flotation cells that are aerated to produce bubbles. The hydrophobic particles attach to the air bubbles, which rise to the surface, forming a froth. The froth is skimmed from the cell, producing a concentrate ("conc") of the target mineral. The minerals that do not float into the froth are referred to as the flotation tailings or flotation tails. These tailings may also be subjected to further stages of flotation to recover the valuable particles that did not float the first time. This is known as scavenging. The final tailings after scavenging are normally pumped for disposal as mine fill or to tailings disposal facilities for long-term storage. Flotation is normally undertaken in several stages to maximize the recovery of the target mineral or minerals and the concentration of those minerals in the concentrate, while minimizing the energy input. Flotation stages The first stage is called roughing, which produces a rougher concentrate. The objective is to remove the maximum amount of the valuable mineral at as coarse a particle size as practical. Grinding costs energy. The goal is to release enough gangue from the valuable mineral to get a high recovery. Some concentrators use a preflotation step to remove low density impurities such as carbonaceous dust. The rougher concentrate is normally subjected to further stages of flotation to reject more of the undesirable minerals that also reported to the froth, in a process known as cleaning. The resulting material is often subject to further grinding (usually called regrinding). Regrinding is often undertaken in specialized regrind mills, such as the IsaMill.. The rougher flotation step is often followed by a scavenger flotation step that is applied to the rougher tailings to further recover any of the target minerals. Science of flotation To be effective on a given ore slurry, the collectors are chosen based upon their selective wetting of the types of particles to