Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

Red mud is a strong alkaline industrial solid waste produced in the process of alumina production. Its long-term storage not only occupies a large amount of land, but also causes soil damage, water quality reduction, air pollution and other environmental safety hazards. Large-scale consumption of red mud has become an urgent problem to be solved. This paper introduced the physical and chemical properties of red mud, and summarized and analyzed the resource utilization of red mud in valuable metal extraction, building materials, environmental management materials, and soil in-situ remediation. The key contents included: the recovery technology of iron, aluminum and rare metals in red mud; the application of red mud in the construction field of cement, brick products, glass-ceramics, ceramics, new functional materials, roadbed materials and mine filling materials; the potential of red mud in environmental treatment such as wastewater treatment, waste gas purification, contaminated soil remediation, fertilizer carrier and the technical path of soil improvement in red mud yard. Finally, the future development trend of red mud resource utilization was prospected.