Physical Properties of a Soil Substitute Derived from an Alunimum Recycling By-Product

Covering bare potash mining residue mounds, which consist almost entirely of rock salt, with soil or oil-like material could reduce briny runoff. A fine-granular saline aluminum recycling product (ALRP) was tested as a soil substitute to cover rock salt residue mounds. Physical properties of ALRP, mixed with the flue gas desulfurization byproduct of a coal-fired power plant, were profiled. The materials had the texture of a silt loam, and the erodibility factor of pure ALRP was 0.65 MG/h/ha/N, a factor considerably reduced upon addition of flue gas byproduct. Use of the mixed materials as a soil substitute and as a surface barrier appears environmentally promising.