Recycling and utilisation of industrial solid waste: An explorative study on gold deposit tailings of ductile shear zone type in China

Abstract

Tailings are solid waste arising from mineral processing. This type of waste can cause severe damage to the environment during stockpiling as a result of the leaching of something harmful into the ecosystem. Gold deposit of ductile shear zone type is an important type of gold deposit, and the recycling of its tailings has been challenging researchers for a long time. In this article, the characteristics of this type of tailings were systematically studied by using modern technical means. Considering the characteristics of the tailings, clay was selected to make up for the shortcomings of the tailings and improve their performance. Water and raw materials were mixed to produce green bodies, which are subsequently sintered into ceramic bodies at 980 °C~1020 °C (sintering temperature). The results showed that some new kinds of mineral phases, such as mullite, anorthite and orthoclase, appear in ceramic bodies. Furthermore, the ceramic bodies have a surface hardness of 5 to 6 (Mohs scale), and their water absorption and modulus of rupture can meet some technical requirements of ceramic materials described in ISO 13006-2012 and GB 5001-1985. These gold mine tailings can be made into ceramic tiles, domestic ceramic bodies, and other kinds of ceramic bodies for commercial and industrial purposes after further improvements.