In order to conserve resources, reduce environmental pollution, create jobs and contribute to the coal industry, producing bricks from coal tailings is being utilized in many coal factories.
According to the statistics, every year millions of coal-tailings are thrown into landfills. Coal tailings contain approximately five to eight percent of usable coal, therefore, throwing away coal-tailings is wasteful and leads to illegal coal exploitation at landfill sites. This reality has forced the coal industry to find another way to deal with coal-tailings.
In addition, using clay to produce bricks has been known to destroy agricultural soil and harm the environment. Every year, there are 24 billion bricks needed in the construction industry. To lay these bricks, 36 million cu.m of soil is used, which is equal to 1,800 ha of cultivated land. Exhaust fumes from bricks contain numerous toxic substances, which are extremely harmful to the environment and to people’s health.
After discovering that coal-tailings’ chemical components were similar to that’s of the clay, scientists discovered the technology to make brick from coal-tailings. The technology has been used in many countries. In Vietnam, the project to use coal-tailings to produce bricks has been successfully implemented by the Institute of Mining Science and Technology (under Vietnam National Coal Mineral Industry Group).
Initial success has urged the scientists at the Institute of Mining Science and Technology to apply the technology to produce more than 23,000 bricks from coal-tailings at the Cua Ong and Hon Gai Coal Factories. Nguyen Quoc Thinh from the Institute of Mining Science and Technology said that coal-tailings can be adequately used to produce bricks, which can be used in the construction industry. Coal-tailing bricks are similar to clay bricks in terms of their physical qualities and design.