Recycling Red Mud of JSC Ural Aluminum Plant with the Recovery of Iron and Construction Materials

Red mud is a by-product of alumina industry which is currently almost completely stored in landfill sites without further use. It contains considerable amounts of valuable components such as iron, aluminum, titanium and rare-earth metals. The reduction smelting of red mud was carried out in laboratory scale to recover iron and obtain slag suitable for use in the construction industry. It has been shown that it is expedient to obtain pig iron and slag from the unprocessed red mud. Those two are suitable for the subsequent leaching of aluminum, titanium and rare-earth metals. It is practical to process dealkalized red mud, with composition adjustment by CaO and Al₂O₃ addition, in order to obtain pig iron and slag in the form of aluminous clinker.