15th Euroseminar on Microscopy Applied to Building Materials • 17-19 June 2015 • Delft, The Netherlands

Some aspects of petrography of burnt

colliery spoil
Vincent Thiéry∗,a , Bernard Guyb
a Dpt. Génie Civil et Environnemental, École des Mines de Douai, Douai, France.
b SPIN/Géosciences, École des Mines de Saint-Étienne, Saint-Étienne, France.
∗ vincent.thiery@mines-douai.fr

Abstract

Burnt colliery spoil is a typical waste material from former coal mining regions (e.g. North of France, Tchelyabinsk
coal basin in Russia, Silesia in Poland. . . ) where mining residues are stored in heaps. When such coal tips are caught
on fire, the materials undergo burning of organic residues, baking and sometimes melting and recrystallization. The
resulting product, which is generally red but also yellowish, orange or violet, finds various uses as a building material:
roadmaking, backfill, decorative aggregate for private domestic roads, sand for tennis court; it has also been used in
the past to design synthetic aggregates (Gutt and Nixon, 1979). Based on a set of samples from various localities in
France (Guy et al., 2001; Masalehdani et al., 2009; Masalehdani and Paquette, 2013), we discuss the petrography and
mineralogy of burnt colliery spoil. The highly heterogeneous initial leftover material from the coal mining (sandstones,
coal dust, pelites, limestone. . . ) as well as the occasional use of tips as garbage repositories is at the origin of a high
diversity of textures within the materials. The high temperatures (800-1000◦ C, sometimes more) reached during the
burning of the heaps leaves no remains of organic matter and are associated with a mineralogical evolution (clay
dehydration, oxidation of sulfides. . . ) and most often with the preservation of the initial rock texture. The local melting
of those rocks lead to the formation of glassy products characterized by a high amount of amorphous content. All those
mineralogical evolutions, presenting some similarities with the manufacture of bricks, contribute to the hardness of the
material and to its characteristics because of its sintering. Finally, secondary minerals (gypsum, zeolites) fill fractures
(Masalehdani et al., 2009).

Keywords: coal mining waste, petrography, annealing, baking, aggregate

I. Introduction Thermoscientific Ultradry EDX detector.

Coal mining is probably the best known type of

mining within the general knowledge, associating
the black of coal with the dirtiness of dust and the
huge coal tips (or coal heaps) close to the mining
shaft (Figure 1). Colliery spoil, also known as mine-
stone (Skarżyńska, 1995), is the typical leftover from
coal extraction. The extracted amount of unused
material can be of one ton of colliery spoil for each
ton of coal (Wiggering, 1993).
Typically, residues from the coal treatment are a
waste (La Nauze and Duffy, 1985) which may be
interesting to re-use. Thus, a thorough characteri-
zation of what is found in a heap may yield some
interesting prospects for potential applications.
II. Materials and methods
Thin sections were produced according to standards
procedures (e.g. Humphries, 1992) and studied
using a Leica DMR XP optical microscope. SEM-
EDX has been carried out on a Hitachi S-4300SE/N
SEM working in high vacuum mode, coupled to a
Spoil heaps characteristics
In order to understand the complex, unusual and
highly variable mineralogy which results from the
burning of coal heaps, it is necessary to present
coal tips characteristics. A coal tip is a heap col-
lecting all the leftovers from the coal exploitation:
sterile rocks (sandstones, arkoses, shales. . . : Figure
2) which may contain organic matter and various
by-products (old metallic elements such as railways,
demolition wastes, fly ashes. . . ). Historically, the
first heaps were flat shaped and did not reach im-
portant heights because the leftovers were simply
thrown by man from wagons. The separation pro-
cesses were not very efficient and thus old heaps
are still rich in coal (Limacher, 1963) and are thus
more likely to be affected by burning. Technical pro-
gresses led to the elevation of typical cone-shaped
heaps using conveyor belt systems. Moreover, im-
provements in the washing of coal led to an im-
poverishment of the coal dust rate in coal heaps.

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Figure 1: Typical conic coal tips from the North of France (Loos-en-Gohelle). The two tips at the background, known
as the “twin tips” are among the highest in Europe and culminate at ca. 130 meters above the surrounding plain. At
the foreground lies a quarry corresponding to the emplacement of two former tips; both unburnt (black) and burnt
(red, at the foreground of the heap) colliery spoil is exploited.

Colliery spoil production can account for half of
the production of a mine (Wiggering, 1993). For
example, in Britain, at the dawn of the eighties,
there were 3000 million tons of colliery spoil avail-
able, with a production rate of 56 million tons/year
(Sherwood, 1979).
Spoil heaps combustion
Apart from the provoked combustion of coal heaps
in order to transform them into valorizable mate-
rials (see below); the combustion of a coal heap
occurs generally accidentally. Lightning strikes, a
nearby forest fire are frequent cases but there is also
the case of electrical short-circuit in underground
cables (Nichol and Tovey, 1998).
Spontaneous combustion of carbon-rich residues,
and thermal input by the exothermic oxidation of
pyrite are the inner phenomenon. Moreover, the
poorly compacted nature of a coal heap will facili-
tate air penetration in its deeper parts. Moldiness
on wood fragments, tissue residues. . . can also
account for an increase in temperature (Limacher,
1963). It has been estimated in the Nord-Pas-de-
Calais basin that one heap out of three ignited,
which, in the early eighties, meant 74 burning heaps
(Ghouzi, 1982). In any case, ignition of coal heap
fires is a complex phenomenon, described and dis-
cussed by Misz-Kennan & Fabiańska (2011).

Petrography

In the inner parts of a burning coal heap, temper-

Figure 2: Synthetic log presenting rocks accompanying
coal in a deposit, which will typically be disposed as
waste after coal exploitation (after Skarżyńska, 1995).
ature can exceed 1000◦ C and even reach 1300◦ C
(Grapes, 2006; Guy et al., 2001; Sokol et al., 2002),
at an almost ambient pressure. At such tempera-
tures, mineralogical transformations are likely to
occur. This phenomenon is known as pyrometamor-
phism, more specifically “anthropogenic pyrometa-
morphism” (Grapes, 2006). In the Russian literature
as well as in eastern Europe it is common to name
this as “combustion metamorphism” (Sokol, 2005;
Žáček et al., 2014).
The terminology of baked rocks and products
formed during the combustion of coal tips is quite
confusing and sometimes contradictory. Red, un-
melted baked rocks are termed “clinker” or “glassy
clinker” when they are melted but they do not
display evidence of flow (Grapes et al., 2009). “Par-
alavas” are melted vesicular rocks and can show
some evidences of flow (Grapes et al., 2011).
Thus, due to both an extreme variability within
the initial products, the nature (melted or not) and
the heat and atmosphere variability within the burn-
ing heap, extremely contrasted products can be
found in burnt colliery spoil (Figure 3).

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 15th Euroseminar on Microscopy Applied to Building Materials • 17-19 June 2015 • Delft, The Netherlands

Unmelted, baked and annealed rocks material which vary within meters, and also on the
type of gas resulting from the burning of the heap.
In the simplest cases, the thermal transformations
Paralava’s aspect is typically very close to that
affecting the rocks from the heap will consist on
of a natural lava, hence its name (Fermor, 1918).
a “baking” during which the initial texture (shale,
Various types can occur but they are typically vesic-
sandstone) is preserved. This can be very spectacu-
ular with a ropy aspect. In the samples from the
lar in the cases where fossils are preserved. Many
present study, the porosity can be very high, ca.
similarities can be found between the baking of
half of the material consists of vesicles (Figure 5a).
argillites or shales and brick production (Grapes,
The microtexture reveals that a large part of the
2006). Typically, baked shales, argillites or sand-
material is glassy; in this matrix, some minerals can
stones, will be macroscopically similar to what they
be observed. Skeletal, slightly green spinel (Figure
were before baking: bedding is preserved (Figure
5b, c) is associated with elongated (up to 150-200
4 a, b). Investigations under optical microscope
micrometers long) mullite needles (Figure 5c, d and
using moderate magnifications are in good agree-
Figure 6a).
ment with this macroscopic observation. However,
The glass composition, revealed by EDX analysis,
under higher magnifications, the matrix appears
is rich is Si and Al with slight amounts of K, Ca,
very close to that of bricks (Ingham, 2011) and fired
Na, Mg and Fe (Figure 6b). Exception made of Fe,
clays (Figure 4c). Mica flakes are affected by the
this composition is quite close to that of a felspdar.
heating and coexist with a diffusive glassy matrix
EDX analysis on spinel crystal (Figure 6c) ca. 10
in which iron oxides are abundant (Figure 4d).
micrometers across reveals that this is an Al-Fe-Mg
spinel, i.e. hercynite- spinel s.s.
Melted rocks: paralavas

Melted rocks from burnt spoil heaps are termed
“paralavas”, sometimes they are also referred to
as “parabasalts” when their chemistry is close to
that of a basalt (Sharygin et al., 1999). They are
very complex rocks, their composition, and thus
their mineralogy, is dependent on the initial type of
III. Use of colliery spoil
Colliery spoil, available in huge amounts in coal
mining areas, has been for a long time considered
as a waste to reuse (La Nauze and Duffy, 1985). This
concern the global material contained in the coal

Figure 3: Macroscopic samples from various localities. a) baked sandstone, Rieulay, North of France; b) baked argillite,
same provenance; c) preserved fossil leaves on a baked shale, Germignies, North of France; d) porous paralava with
flow texture, Rieulay, North of France; e) ropy paralava, la Ricamarie, center of France; f) extremely vacuolar paralava,
same provenance.

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 Thiéry & Guy

Figure 4: Baked argillite, exact location unknown, North of France. a) general view (scan of a thin section); b)
microscopic view plane polarized light, showing the preserved bedding; c) microtexture consisting mainly of quartz
grains in a more or less fused fire clay matrix, crossed polarized light; d) detail of the matrix showing indistinct grain
boundaries between quartz and fired clay. Poorly preserved clayey flakes are visible and show weak birefringence. The
glassy matrix contains abundant iron oxides.

tips, both burnt and unburnt. This all-in material
has served to infill former mining works (galleries,
pits. . . ), sometimes along with lime and fly ash
(Ghataora and Jarvis, 1996; Karfakis et al., 1996).
Prospects for a more general use of colliery spoil,
regardless of its burnt or unburnt nature, include
embankments, foundations (Ferreras Cadierno et
al., 2014), and, mixed with Portland cement, only
materials for which minor mechanical strength is
needed seems to be achievable (Okagbue and Ochu-
lor, 2007).
However, the special nature of burnt colliery spoil
has also attracted civil engineers because of its hard-
ness. Thus, its potential use as an aggregate in
concrete have been investigated (Runguphan and
Guthrie, 2009). Those authors, using a substitution
of natural aggregates with 60 % of burnt colliery
spoil, have achieved a concrete showing a 39 MPa
of unconfined compressive strength at 56 days.
Some prospects may be found in the very special

Figure 5: Some examples of the microtexture from a paralava, la Ricamarie, France. a) general view (scan of a thin
section) illustrating the high porosity of the rock; b: dendritic spinel (Spl) crystals in a glassy (Gl) matrix, plane
polarized light; c) elongated mullite (Mul) crystals, confirmed by EDX analysis (plane polarized light); d) elongated
mullite crystals (crossed polarized light).

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 15th Euroseminar on Microscopy Applied to Building Materials • 17-19 June 2015 • Delft, The Netherlands
Figure 6: EDX spectra for a) mullite, b) glass and c) spinel from the glassy paralava.
case of paralavas. Those ones being more or less
amorphous and rich in Si and Al may potentially
be interesting candidates for geopolymerization or
any kind of alkali activation.
Finally, it is worth mentioning a very famous
use of crushed burnt colliery spoil: it is indeed
used on tennis courts (the famous red sand), the
Rolland-Garros court having been supplied by a
former quarry in the North of France (Robaszynski
and Guyétant, 2010).
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