Feasibility Studies on Use of Gold Mine Tailings as Partial Replacement of Natural Sand in Sustainable Mortar and Concrete

Abstract

Developing an alternative sustainable construction material will be a boon to the construction industry. Utilising mining rejects particularly gold mine tailings to develop an alternative construction material mitigates the problem of environmental degradation caused due to tailings and also contributes to the efforts being made to develop sustainable alternative building materials/technologies. Hence the aim of this investigation is to explore the possibility of developing mortar and concrete by incorporating gold mine tailings in natural sand and evaluating their properties. Keeping two important parameters such as the grading pattern permitted by relevant standards and the basic properties of fine aggregates related to their physical, chemical and morphological characteristics, the percentage replacement of natural sand with gold mine tailings was evaluated newline