The ceramic industry has a great environmental role when it comes to recycling waste. The industrial production that has been developed in the Northern Region of Brazil makes room for use of waste as a substitute raw material in the production of ceramics. This substitution in addition to the environmental advantage also provides interesting physical characteristics in the ceramics produced. This work aimed to study the effects caused by the incorporation of manganese ore tailings in formulations of ceramic clay, to examine the extent to which it is possible to incorporate this waste without prejudice to the product properties. It was proposed some formulations containing varying amounts of tailings. The ceramic bodies were shaped and sintered at 1000 ºC to 1200ºC for 2 h. Results demonstrated that the material showed a decreasing in the porosity and water absorption, and an increasing in the bending strength as a result of the densification promoted by the tailing incorporation which acts as fluxing agent.
ceramics; manganese; waste; clay; recycling
