TITLE:
Correlations of SiO2, Al2O3 and Other Elements in the Dam of an Iron Mine: Contributions to the Circular Economy
AUTHORS:
Vidal Félix Navarro Torres, Eduardo Da Rosa Aquino, Carlos Arroyo, Romulo Ferraz, Carlos Dalmiro, Ana Sampaio
KEYWORDS:
Tailings Dam, Ordinary Kriging, Contaminants, Correlation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.14 No.5,
May
26,
2026
ABSTRACT: Iron deposits are the main sources of raw material for the steel industry. These deposits are predominantly formed by iron oxide minerals, such as hematite, magnetite and goethite. The economic viability and metallurgical quality of the deposits depend not only on the iron content but also on the presence of undesirable contaminants, such as phosphorus, silica, and alumina. The presence of these contaminants directly impacts the beneficiation process and the performance of the final product in various processes, such as in blast furnaces, sintering, pelletizing and direct reduction. In this study, the influence and behavior of the contaminants associated with iron sediments deposited in a tailings dam are evaluated. A model based on ordinary kriging (OK) estimation was used, which included the contents of iron, silica, phosphorus, alumina, manganese, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, and titanium dioxide and the loss on ignition. This model was used to evaluate the contents of the analytes via correlation analyses. The generated scatter plots revealed correlations between iron and silica, iron and alumina, and silica and alumina.