IMMT bid to find valuable materials from red mud

The CSIR Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology in Bhubaneswar is working on extracting valuable materials from red mud, a byproduct of alumina production. Important materials like iron oxide, alumina, titania, and rare earth elements can be separated from the red mud, and an industry produces more than one tonne of red mud to get one tonne of alumina. Huge amounts of red mud get deposited on the premises of aluminum companies across the world, and it has now become a headache for industries to manage the byproduct. If the byproduct gets into water sources, water gets contaminated, and it also affects agriculture because it is alkaline in nature. The CSIR Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology has signed an agreement with the CSIR National Metallurgical Laboratory in Jamshedpur, the Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminum Research Development and Design Centre in Nagpur, and three aluminum industries—Nalco Hindalco, Vedanta, and Alcoa—to conduct research for holistic utilisation of red mud for extraction of metallic values and residue utilisation. Around Rs 8 crore has been spent for the project so far. The CSIR Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology has developed a pilot plant to separate alumina, iron