developed from mining and metallurgical waste products. It could potentially supplement primary supplies of critical materials (Kursunoglu, 2025). Red mud, often referred to as bauxite residue, is a primary byproduct of the Bayer process used to produce alumina (Hairi et al., 2015). An estimated 1-1.5 tons of red mud is generated for each ton of alumina (Al-Fakih et al., 2023). It is reported that an estimated 300 million tons of red mud is generated globally every year. As a result, the cumulative stockpile of red mud will be approximately 4 billion tons worldwide (Archambo & Kawatra, 2021; Swain, 2022). Despite the massive quantity of red mud available, recycling rates are extremely low with less than 2-3 percent currently being recycled. For the most part, red mud is simply dumped into landfills or stored in tailing ponds (Padhan & Paul, 2025). Such practices create serious long term environmental issues due to elevated pH levels, particulate emissions and land use impacts. As such, there is growing interest in sustainable red mud management practices. In addition to presenting environmental problems, red mud can provide potential raw material sources. Red mud is composed of aluminum, titanium, iron, and other trace elements including some rare earth elements and scandium, many of which are designated as critical or strategically important materials (Archambo & Kawatra, 2021b; Pan et al., 2023). The chemical composition of red mud varies greatly based upon the characteristics of the bauxite ore that it is derived from and the specific conditions under which the refining process occurs (Reddy et al., 2021). Even though there has been an increase in research focused on the value engineering of red mud, there is a scarcity of comparative analyses of red mud. It specifically associated with different refineries, especially those in India (Swain et al., 2022). India’s substantial bauxite resources and alumina production capacity, a clear understanding of source-dependent characteristics is essential. It supports effective resource recovery strategies. It also enables informed mineral policy development. This study provides a refinery-specific characterization of red mud. The elemental analysis was done in detail to identify the side specific compositional variation. The findings will provide new knowledge about the existence of strategic and critical minerals, and their site-specific recovery strategies. 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 Sample Collection and Preparation This study was done using three samples of red mud. The samples were produced out of the alumina production processes associated with representative sources of bauxite. The bauxite was gathered in the current mining fields in the eastern Indian bauxite belt. The chosen locations are in large bauxite-producing regions of the Odisha state. These deposits are also characterized by lateritic bauxite that is deposited in tropical weather conditions. The red mud samples are those that are associated with the various mining sites and processing streams. They were identified as refinery A, refinery B, refinery C. The samples are variability in red mud characteristics because of source origin. All samples were air dried and reduced into 118
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