Abstract: The zinc oxide mineral resources are abundant in China. But the ore is complex in nature， containing a large amount of slime and many soluble salts， beneficiation results is unsatisfactory. In order to comprehensively understand the research progress of mineral processing workers in the field of zinc oxide ore processing in recent years, a comprehensive review was made from the aspects of zinc oxide ore flotation technology, flotation reagent, the influence of metal ions and strengthening sulfurization.It was pointed out that the main problems affecting the flotation of zinc oxide ore in China are the slime and inevitable ions. The development of new agents that are insensitive to slime and inevitably ion is still the main research and development way to improve the separation index of zinc oxide ore. In addition， the development of high-intensity pulp mixing equipment， new high-efficiency desliming equipment and large-scale multi-flow static flotation equipment suitable for flotation of fine-grained minerals also requires sufficient attention. The combined process of gravity-flotation separation and beneficiation-metallurgy is important method for complex zinc oxide ore processing. Conducting basic theoretical research on zinc oxide ore by means of interdisciplinary and advanced analytical testing， revealing the characteristics of dispersed and aggregated slime， and exploring the law of ion migration， which will become the study of zinc oxide flotation hot spots and trends.

Key words: Zinc oxide ore, Flotation, Reagent, Research status