The large amount of solid waste coming from mines and metallurgical industries became a serious social-environmental problem. The physical and chemical features of this material can raise a great interest in other industries. The ceramic industry might be a great costumer for most of this material, since it can supply the current lack of raw material. The red mud, main industrial residue of the alumina manufacturing, has been a very interesting input for several kinds of aggregates manufacturing used for the concrete production in civil engineering. In this context, this paper deals with studies concerning the red mud recycling to be applied as raw material for the synthetic light aggregate production to be used as an alternative material in the civil construction industry. This is because of its physical-chemical features and the large amount annually produced (around 10 million tons within two factories in the North of Brazil). The studies completed in this work show the feasibility of aggregates manufacturing, with different properties and possibilities. These properties depend on the parameters control such as content of free silica and clay, and the sintering temperature. Such variables allow to perfectly controlling the glassy phase formation which is responsible for the aggregate properties such as: porosity, mechanical resistance and density. This material can be used for conventional or special concretes to supply the civil engineering needs.
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