Utilization of industrial waste products as pozzolanic material in cemented paste backfill of high sulphide mill tailings

Abstract

In this study, the potential use of the industrial waste products including waste glass (WG), fly ash (FA), granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and silica fume (SF) as pozzolanic additive for the partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in cemented paste backfill (CPB) of sulphide-rich mill tailings was investigated. The influence of these industrial waste products on the short- and long-term mechanical performance of CPB was demonstrated. The rate of development of strength of CPB samples tended to slow down when the pozzolanic wastes were incorporated or increased in dosage in the binder phase. Severe losses (by 26%) in the strength of CPB samples produced from exclusively OPC occurred after an initial curing period of 56 days. The addition of WG (10–30 wt%) as a partial replacement of OPC was observed to aggravate further the strength losses of CPB samples. GBFS, FA and SF appeared to improve the long-term performance of CPB samples; albeit, only GBFS and SF could be incorporated into the binder phase only at certain levels i.e. up to 20 wt% GBFS and 15 wt% SF in order to maintain a threshold strength level of 0.7 MPa over 360 days. SEM studies have provided further insight into the microstucture of CPB and confirmed the formation of deleterious gypsum as the expansive phase. These findings have demonstrated that the industrial waste products including GBFS and SF can be suitably used as mineral additives to improve the long-term mechanical performance of CPB produced from sulphide-rich tailings as well as to reduce the binder costs in a CPB plant.