Mine tailings account for most of the environmental incidents related to the extractive industry, with risks increasing due to steadily rising tonnage of low-grade ore and extreme weather events. Recycling of tailings in raw-material-intensive applications presents an interesting alternative to costly tailings management with associated restoration efforts. Chemically bonded ceramics may offer a route to upgrading mine tailings into raw materials for ceramics. In this review such chemically bonded ceramic methods that may be used to recycle mine tailings as raw materials, are reviewed while focusing in particular on two methods: 1) geopolymerization/alkali activation and 2) chemically bonded phosphate ceramics. The aim of the review is not to give exhaustive review on the wide topic, but to scope the required boundary conditions that need to be met for such utilization. According to the findings, alkali activation has been studied for 28 separate silicate minerals in the scientific literature, and presents a viable method, which is already in commercial use in calcium-rich cement-like binder applications. Phosphate bonding literature is more focused on phosphate containing minerals and waste encapsulation. Very little work has been done on low-calcium tailings utilization with either technology, and more knowledge is needed on the effect of different pretreatment methods to increase reactivity of mine tailings in chemically bonded ceramics.
This paper deals with the valorization of quartz and felspar rich lithium mine tailings (QFS) in the development of construction materials. Ladle slag was used as green strength increasing agent.Sodium hydroxide and carbonate were used as fluxing agents to allow sintering at 700 -900 ºC. Of these, sodium hydroxide was found to be the more efficient. The sintered ceramics were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, compressive test, water absorption, apparent density and dilatometry; the results were found to comply with ASTM C62-99 specifications for building brick, and interesting for a sustainable use of resources.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.