Abstract
Buildings and their construction and operation represent a large portion of the world’s carbon emissions at around 40%. One of the numerous ways to reduce their carbon footprint is by using lower emission materials of construction. The global mining industry generates vast amounts of mine waste, which is collected and disposed of yet a lot of these tailings could be recycled into building construction. However, these tailings contain potentially hazardous substances that can pose significant challenges to the environment and human ecosystems, if not managed appropriately. The key solution to this problem is to transform mine waste into valuable materials. One way to achieve this is to utilise mine waste as a precursor to produce low-carbon concrete, specifically geopolymer concrete (GPC). As the industry moving towards net zero carbon, sustainable construction practices are crucial. Low-carbon concrete, GPC, can achieve this with waste-derived materials like tailings.
The massive quantities of mine tailings across the world lack a systematic, characterisation or verified data suitable for low-carbon concrete production. Our aim is to establish a comprehensive database to provide the necessary information to facilitate the sustainable production of GPC. The database will collect and organise data on tailings including location, status, material properties, volume, environmental conditions etc. Using geospatial tools and working with stakeholders, the database will help identify suitable resources for geopolymer concrete production, promoting Circular Economy practices and low-carbon construction solutions. This paper presents the database attributes for builders.