Preparation of Construction Bricks from Iron Ore Tailings

Abstract

Based on the background that large amount of iron ore tailings are stockpiled in China, the utilization of iron ore tailings to prepare sintering brick was studied. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the influence of sintering temperature on sintering bricks from iron ore tailings, in the presence of clay, coal refuses and bentonite. Sintering bricks were prepared at different temperature with 40 wt% iron ore tailings. Drying was investigated as well as the loss on ignition, bulk density and compressive strength of the specimens. Their mechanical and microstructure properties were also investigated by radioactivity, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that compressive strengths of the specimens produced were higher than that required by the standards MU20 of GB5101-2003, up to 128.0Mpa at 1100°C corresponding to its higher bulk density completely.