The study presents analysis of the properties and parameters of waste from high-temperature processing of mineral raw materials – blast-furnace and steelmaking slags, dump slags from copper smelting and ferrochrome production, and incinerator slag. We perform a detailed analysis of the material composition of the studied materials, identify key resource and environmentally significant indicators of the chemical composition and physical properties of the waste, and adopt these as indicators of the resource and environmental potential of the slags. The paper considers approaches to grouping raw materials of industrial origin into categories with similar resource value and environmental hazard. As an alternative for classifying waste from high-temperature processes, we propose a cluster-based approach that enables building a categorization system for industrial raw materials according to their properties and limiting the number of sampling features while maintaining sufficient coverage of the classified materials. After standardizing and checking the multicollinearity of the selected indicators of the slags’ resource and environmental potential in the analysed dataset, the study finds that most indicators show low, absent, or random correlation. Using the Statistica software, we rank the studied materials via fuzzy clustering. Based on the resulting distribution, we define three cluster groups for treatment: resource-inert; resource-valuable with moderate environmental impact; and environmentally hazardous, requiring deep processing. The results show that granulated blast-furnace slags, lump blast-furnace slag, and ferrochrome production slag are suitable for manufacturing construction materials without preliminary dressing, provided the products meet environmental safety requirements. Steelmaking slags represent a resource-valuable material with moderate environmental impact and are suitable for producing metal concentrate. Copper-bearing slags and incinerator slags are environmentally hazardous and require deep processing with metal recovery, while tailings need stabilization and neutralization. The obtained results form the basis for further development of a methodology for comprehensive resource and environmental assessment of industrial mineral facilities, which is necessary for transitioning to closed-loop production cycles.

Copper-zinc ores are characterized by rather fine (emulsion) dissemination of ore minerals and heterophase aggregation of grains and therefore require fine grinding of class - 40 microns for mineral separation. Material of this size can be treated by flotation method. The application of this method can be extended by using selective flocculation of sieve particles on a drop of oil. Analysis of practical application of various reagent modes of selective flocculation of sulfide minerals shows that a significant factor is the type of the main collector. In this work the influence of xanthogenates of chalcopyrite and sphalerite with the number of carbon atoms from 2 to 6 with normal and isometric structure on flocculation and flotation processes is considered. It is shown that the stability of flocculation depends on the interaction forces of the polar part of the molecule with the mineral surface and the nonpolar part with the oil drop. The interaction energy of the non-polar part of xanthogenate with tridecane is calculated and the results of flotation with different xanthogenates and their mixtures are presented. It is concluded that the mixture of xanthogenates C4 and C3 is more effective.