Experimental Examination on Utilization of Processed Mine Overburden Sand by Substituted to River Sand in Construction

Abstract

Overburden is the unutilized rock or soil bands that are generated during the mining process and are dumped near the marked placed inside the mine boundaries. It contains alluvial, sandstone, soil, gravel, clay, debris other than mining material. Dumping or management of this mine waste is a significant environmental problem, and additional cost spends to the mining industry. And also, most of this waste is disposed of at the surface, which inevitably requires extensive planning. Sand and gravel are low energy-intensive construction materials, but the growing demand for industrial uses has depleted this natural source. Limitations to natural sand extraction and legal regulations have been imposed in several countries due to environmental concerns. Due to the above, all the reasons river sand has become very costly in recent years. The research has been carried out to convert the overburden to processed overburden sand after that compared the geotechnical properties like specific gravity, permeability, moisture content, and grain size analysis, swell factor of both the overburden processed sand and natural river sand. Then we check the suitability of processed overburden material as a replacement to natural river sand in construction by comparing the strengths of the concrete samples prepared with both the river sand and processed overburden sand. We found the average compressive strength of overburden sand brick is 24.69 MPa, and river sand brick is 28.08 MPa of 14 days curing of bricks. The results obtained that the processed overburden sand can be used as the best alternative for the river sand because the geotechnical properties of both are almost the same. This processed overburden utilization in the coal mining area to reduced environmental impact, more availability of a land resource, minimizing the overburden disposable cost to the mining industry, and it’s also helpful to the preservation of natural river sand.