Extractive Waste as a Resource: Quartz, Feldspars, and Rare Earth Elements from Gneiss Quarries of the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Province (Piedmont, Northern Italy)

Abstract

The growing demand for raw materials requires the optimization of extractive processes and innovative approaches, such as the recovery of quarrying and processing waste. Waste materials from gneiss (ranging from blocks up to residual sludge) used as dimension stone (Beola and Serizzo from Piedmont, northern Italy) were characterized for chemistry, mineralogy, and petrography: quartz and feldspars (plagioclase and K-feldspar) are the most abundant minerals, followed by micas (biotite and minor muscovite) and traces of chlorite and epidote (allanite). Quartz and feldspars could be reused in the industrial minerals sector, especially in the ceramics industry; depending on the purity requirements of the raw materials, some mica separation treatments may be required. The most critical issues relate to the small grain size and the relative abundance of mica in some commercial varieties. The presence of allanite opens new possibilities for the recovery of rare earth elements (REE, critical raw materials).