The Use of Gold Ore Tailings from Amesmessa Mine as a Raw Material in the Ceramic Field

The extraction of gold ore generates waste materials called gold mine tailings. These wastes are considered as a major environmental problem for the mining industry since they consist of several heavy metals such as chromium, iron, silver, etc…. At Amesmessa Mine (Tamanrasset, Algeria) where mining has been carried out for over 15 years, about 2 million tons of gold tailings have been accumulated each year. The aim of this work was to study the use of gold mine tailings in the ceramic fields as substitution of feldspar. Three types of porcelain were produced by mixing 50 wt% of kaolin, 20 wt% of sand, and 30 wt% of feldspar. Indeed, feldspar was substituted by the mine gold tailings with a proportion of 5, 10, and 30 wt. %. The mixed powders (were submitted to the furnace at 1100 and 1200 ℃ during 2 h. The results carried out by XRD and XRF show that this tailing is made up of quartz, pyrite, muscovite, and dolomite. The mineralogical characterization of the fired products shows the dominance of mullite and quartz phases. The mechanical properties of porcelain samples during sintering were studied together with the chemical durability. This work highlighted the possibility of using gold tailings in the ceramic field.