Environmental evaluation of treated tailing as Supplementary Cementitious Material

Copper treated tailings (TT) have been studied as a supplementary cementitious material from a mechanical performance point of view. Nevertheless, treatments on tailings introduces impacts that need to be considered when evaluating the environmental performances. This Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study focusses on the use in concrete mixes of TT. Mixes were compared to concrete mixes without TT for three scenarios: equivalent compressive strength with same water-to-cementitious ratio, maximum compressive strength, and minimum allowable strength. Results show that in case of concrete mixes with higher mechanical performance, environmental impact indicators show better results than those of concrete mixes without tailings.