IRON ORE RESIDUE USE AS RAW MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MORTAR

The increasing amount of tailing generated by exploring and extracting iron ore is an environmental problem for mining companies, due to the large areas required for disposing it and due to the constant need to manage them. For this reason, it is necessary to develop studies aiming at using the residue as raw material for others industrial sectors. The aim of this study is to test the technical feasibility of using tailing generated by processing an itabiritic iron ore as raw material for mortar production. Different mortar formulations were prepared by changing the proportion mortar/tailing (1: 2 and 1: 2,5) and water/mortar (0,95 and 1). For each sample, it was determined the time for drying, viscosity and density for fresh samples; and density and compressive strength for solidified samples. It was concluded that the mortar prepared with the biggest amount of residue (trace 1: 2,5) and the lowest water/cement ratio (0,95) resulted in the shortest time to dry and the biggest compressive strength. This result was very satisfactory as the tailing added improved the compressive strength of the final product.