Potassium ethyl xanthate is used in the mining industry as flotation agent for extraction of the ores of copper, nickel, and silver. The method exploits the affinity of these "soft" metals for the organosulfur ligand.
Potassium xanthate is a useful reagent for preparing xanthate esters from alkyl and aryl halides. The resulting xanthate esters are useful intermediates in organic synthesis.