Abstract:As a major alumina producer, China discharges 100 million tons of red mud every year. However, due to the lack of effective methods for large-scale comprehensive utilization of red mud, the cumulative stockpile stock has exceeded 1 billion tons. The Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources and the Work Plan for Preventing and Resolving the Safety Risks of Tailings Pond issued in 2022 put forward requirements for the comprehensive utilization of red mud. Large scale comprehensive utilization of red mud is imminent. Based on the previous research work and literature research, this paper systematically summarizes and analyzes the physical and chemical characteristics, production status and current utilization of red mud. Combined with the characteristics of red mud, this paper comprehensively combs the key research directions and existing problems of red mud in the four fields of metallurgy, architecture, environment and fire protection. Some development suggestions have been put forward to provide references for the future resource utilization of red mud.