Activating of Nickel Slag and Preparing of Cementitious Materials for Backfilling

Abstract

The back-filling method is distinguished from other mining methods by its higher cost. In order to solve this problem and utilize water-granulated nickel slag as much as possible, nickel slag from flash smelting operation was used to prepare cementitious materials for backfilling. Approaches including mechanical activation and chemical activation were adopted to improve the cementitious activity of the slag. By taking the strength of the backfill materials as the evaluation standards, the hydration activity and cementitious performance of the slag were investigated under different activation conditions, and the mechanism of chemical activation was analyzed. The results shows that cementing agent prepared by using mainly the slag (occupying 85% of the total raw materials) can be used to replace cement and meet the production requirements for backfilling materials.