Özet:
Large amount of the chrome ore concentration plant tailings was discarded during
chrome ore mining process. The accumulation of the tailings takes large areas of land for
the storage and causes environmental and safety problems. When the annual consumption
of the ready mixed concrete per person (approximately 1.5 m3/person) in Turkey is
considered, employment of the tailings in the ready-mixed concrete may be a solution for
the recovery of the tailings. In addition, using chrome tailings as a substitution for sand to
produce ready-mixed concrete is a possible way to solve the resource problem of sand
deficiency. The aim of this study is to investigate the utilization of the tailings taken from a
chrome ore concentration plant in Eskisehir, Turkey as fine aggregate in ready-mixed
concrete production. For this purpose, the tailings were partially replaced with the fine
aggregate by the weight at 0, 10, 20 and 30% proportions by weight in the ready-mixed
concrete mixtures. Standard curing is applied until the time of test to the 15x15x15 cm cube
specimens taken from the mixtures. The unit weight, compressive strength and ultrasonic
pulse velocity values of the cubic specimens were investigated in this study. Performed
tests showed that replacing sand to chrome ore tailings has a potential for further
investigations.
