Sustainable valorization of mining waste: Phosphate sludge repurposing for advanced ceramic production

Managing the vast quantities of waste constantly generated by mining activities is one of the major environmental and economic problems facing mankind today. Fluorapatite is separated from the associated gangue minerals by a series of crushing and screening, washing, and flotation processes. These processes produce a significant amount of phosphate sludge, which is stored on the mine site in drift rock and large surface ponds. One possible environmental option is to reuse it as an alternative raw material in ceramics and building materials. Consequently, two phosphate sludges from two different Moroccan towns, Youssoufia and Khouribga, were studied. Due to the complexity of these raw materials resulting from long geological processes, in-depth physical, chemical, mineralogical, and thermal characterization is required. Dry compressed powder pellets were sintered at 900 °C, 1000 °C, and 1100 °C for 2 h. The study focuses on the effect of sintering temperature on mineralogical transformations and ceramic properties such as apparent porosity, water absorption, and mechanical strength. At 1100 °C, a slight increase in density was observed for both phosphate sludges. Water absorption was reduced by 2.51 % in both sludges for pellets sintered at 1100 °C compared to those sintered at 900 °C. Mechanical strength improved significantly, with an increase of about 60 % for samples sintered at 1100 °C, recording 227 N for Youssoufia sludge and 247 N for Khouribga sludge. This work has provided new data on the physical, chemical, mineralogical, and thermal changes in ceramics as the sintering temperature increases. These data will be useful for the manufacture of high-value ceramics.