Abstract: Zinc resources are indispensable mineral resources in production of human and development of society,which products are mainly used in different areas of metallurgy,steel,machinery,electrical,chemical,military and medicine.As the most important mineral raw materials of refined zinc in industry,sphalerite has gradually aroused people's attention.The mineral processing of depressing zinc mineral is often used in the process of polymetallic sulphide ore flotation separation.Therefore,research on the depressants of sphalerite and its mechanism has a great significance for the improvement of mineral processing index.The article not only introduces many conventional depressants namely lime (CaO),zinc sulfate (ZnSO4 · 7 H2O),sodium sulfide,sodium sulfide,cyanide,zinc sulfate + sodium sulfide,zinc sulfate+sodium sulfide and zinc sulfate+cyanide alkali(sodium carbonate or lime),but also introduces a variety of new depressants such as BD1 and CCE.And the performance criterion and mechanism of zinc mineral depressants were summarized.It provided a theoretical basis for the future research and development of depressants.Besides,the paper points out that developing innovate efficient reagents is still the main research trend.