Abstract: Red mud is a strongly alkaline bulk solid waste generated by the alumina industry,and its stockpiling poses increasingly severe environmental and spatial pressures.To advance the resource utilization of red mud,this paper systematical ly analyzes its characteristics in China,including chemical composition (rich in Si,Al,Fe,Ti,Na,Ca,and trace elements) and mineral structure (dominated by amorphous phases such as hematite and goethite).Based on this,the technological progress in its resource utilization is reviewed,focusing on two main directions:valuable element recovery and functional material prepara tion.The results indicate that:in terms of element recovery,technologies like reduction roasting-magnetic separation and acid leaching can achieve recovery rates exceeding 90% for iron and aluminum under laboratory conditions. In terms of material preparation,red mud can be used in cement production,as a concrete admixture,and in cementitious materials,with some red mud-based road materials having entered the trial application stage.Furthermore,red mud-based adsorbents exhibit excellent adsorption performance for uranium,CO2 ,etc.(e.g.,adsorption capacities can reach 59.45 mg/g and 13.25 mg/g,respective ly).However,the current comprehensive utilization rate of red mud in China is only about 12%,with most technologies still fa cing cost and process bottlenecks.It is concluded that future efforts should follow the principle of "categorization and classifica tion." In the short term,technologically mature construction material applications should be promoted for rapid bulk consump tion.In the long term,the economic and technical challenges of efficient valuable element extraction must be overcome to ultimately achieve the large-scale,high-value,and harmless utilization of red mud.

Key words: red mud,resource utilization,valuable element recovery,construction materials,adsorbent