Abstract: In the process of mineral flotation, due to the crushing and dissolution of minerals, the addition of medicaments and the recycling of backwater, some metal ions will inevitably exist in the pulp. These metal ions tend to have a significant impact on the flotation behavior of minerals. Based on the analysis and summary of related literatures, the effects of metal ions on flotation and separation of oxide minerals, sulfide minerals and silicate minerals are summarized.Metal ions form complexes or precipitates at different pH conditions. Through the consumption of collectors, to prevent the decomposition of collectors to suppress mineral flotation, pulp concentration increases to a certain extent will also inhibit mineral flotation. Single ions of different components or different combinations of ions have a great impacton the flotation effect.