The trend towards more complex and low grade ore bodies requires increasingly specialised flotation reagent suites to deliver the required separation efficiency of the valuable mineral from the gangue, and to maximize concentrate grade and recovery. A new range of frother formulations have been developed by BASF. These formulations have shown the ability to deliver improvements in grade and improved valuable recovery on synthetic sulphide/quartz mixtures when compared with commonly used frothers such as MIBC at comparable concentrations. Fundamental test work characterising foam stability, interfacial phenomena (e.g. coalescence time and bubble oscillation) and particle detachment in the froth phase were conducted and used to explain the improved performance trends observed.