The effect of diopside raw material with a high diopside content on the properties of construction ceramics from pastes containing diopside concentrate (85, 90, and 95%) with dispersion of up to 150 mm and sodium silicate glass was investigated. The possibility of using natural diopside, obtained in primary processing of concentrate without wet milling of the batch, in ceramic pastes as the basic component was demonstrated.The development of industrial and civil construction has made it necessary to increase production and use of environmentally clean, competitive, and at the same time, inexpensive wall and facing ceramic articles.The observed increase in the production volumes of ceramic construction materials confirms the prospects for development of the ceramics industry and expansion of the assortment and competitiveness of ceramic construction materials in the internal market make their use promising.We used natural diopside with dispersion under 150 mm in manufacture of facing construction materials.Sufficient experience in use of diopside (CaMgSi 2 O 6 ) in ceramics production has now accumulated [1, 2]. Diopside rocks from the southern Baikal region are distinguished by a high degree of purity with respect to iron oxides and other coloring oxides [3].Diopside rocks have been investigated both in production of high-frequency ceramics [4] and in fine construction ceramics [2] and porcelain pastes [4,5]. Processing of diopside from the mica group of deposits, namely, the Burutuisky deposit, have now begun to be developed.The studies by colleagues in the Department of Silicate and Nanomaterials Technology at Tomsk Polytechnical University on the use of diopside raw material in ceramic pastes show that diopside-containing raw material ensures sintering of different ceramic pastes due to reaction with clay components in the solid phase until a melt appears. Their use allows changing the importance of clay in ceramic pastes, retaining the role of binder that ensures the strength of molded articles. Diopside rocks with an approximately 50% 4 diopside content are suitable for increasing the quality of facing tiles. The presence of up to 30% quartz and calcite in diopside rock does not reduce the quality. With an increase in the amount of diopside in the rock, the quality of the tiles increases. We attempted to obtain ceramic material made of compositions of diopside concentrate (up to 150 mm) with liquid glass.Diopside concentrate and sodium silicate glass were investigated as components of the ceramic paste. The amount of diopside concentrate in the ceramic paste varied from 85 to 95%.In the diopside rocks in the Burutuiskoe deposit, the iron oxide content varies from 2.0% in the surface layer to thousandths of a percent in the basic mass (Table 1). The diopside content increases over the depth, gradually increasing to 80%. Quartz acts as the basic extrinsic mineral in the rock. In the upper layer, the quartz content reaches 50%. The diopside concentrate is obtained from the middle layer, where the Fe 2 O 3 conte...
