Institute of Solid State Chemistry of the Ural branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (Ekaterinburg, Russia):

I. N. Pyagay, Dr. Techn., Leading Scientific Researcher, e-mail: igor-pya@yandex.ru

Up-to-day methods for processing bauxite are characterized by a low complexity, pursuing only one goal — the maximum possible extraction of aluminum oxide with the transfer of most of raw materials in production waste — red mud. The accumulation and low utilization of aluminous production red mud is a global problem. Its recent aggravation has invariably been associated with increased risks and threats of environmental pollution and the facts of real man-made disasters. Initially adopted and widely used technologies aimed at improving the methods of storing and occasional use of red mud only aggravate the problem. A comprehensive analysis of the literary sources showed that a stable outlook on the solution of this problem through the large-scale involvement of red mud in complex processing with the extraction of most useful components had already been shaped. The existing array of results of our own research of red mud enables us to form a single integrated processing scheme based on the developed technologies and technical solutions. Intensively ongoing development to improve technologies for the production of iron-containing product in the ferrous metallurgy should be the final link for the full utilization of the total mass of red mud. At the same time, issues related to improving the efficiency of processing and utilization of red mud require further research and development, and the obtained high-performance results will allow to use harmful production waste as the alternative to natural resources.

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