Abstract Growing emphasis on sustainable construction has further driven interest in industrial by‐products and naturally occurring heavy minerals as aggregate replacements, combining waste valorization with enhanced shielding performance. Heavy silicate minerals (HSMs), recovered as a by‐product during physical beneficiation of valuable minerals from Egyptian Red Sea coast stream sediments, and banded iron formation (BIF)—a dense iron oxide/silica rock abundantly available in Egypt's Eastern Desert—represent largely underexplored yet highly promising materials for heavyweight concrete (HWC) production. This study investigated the potential of by‐product HSMs as fine aggregate replacement at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% volumetric levels in HWC utilizing BIF as coarse aggregate. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted to investigate the physical properties (including workability and density), mechanical properties (compressive and tensile strengths), microstructural characteristics using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and radiation‐shielding properties via experimental, simulation, and computational tools, namely a High‐Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector, the Monte Carlo N‐Particle (MC) transport code, and Phy‐X/PSD (Photon Shielding and Dosimetry Parameters) software, respectively. Results indicated that the progressive volumetric replacement of natural fine sand aggregate with HSMs in HWC mixes resulted in a progressive decline in workability, evidenced by a 46% slump reduction observed at 100% HSMs replacement. Conversely, increasing HSMs content led to a consistent trend of increasing density, culminating in a 10.2% density augmentation at full HSMs replacement. Optimal improvements in compressive strength (10.8% and 11.5% at 7 and 28 days, respectively) and tensile strength (9.5% at 28 days) were observed at a 50% HSMs replacement level. Furthermore, while a 75% HSMs replacement showed slightly reduced but still elevated strength values, full replacement with HSMs resulted in minor decreases in compressive (3.5% and 1% at 7 and 28 days) and tensile (2.7% at 28 days) strengths. The incorporation of HSMs, as observed through SEM, predominantly acted as filler particles within the concrete matrix, resulting in an enhanced matrix density due to effective void filling. Adding BIF as coarse aggregate increased concrete density and also improved γ‐attenuation. Gradually replacing natural sand with HSMs increased density to 3.35 t/m 3 at 100% replacement, enhancing shielding efficiency. The linear attenuation coefficient findings showed that HSMs‐modified mixtures demonstrated better γ‐ray absorption from 0.015 to 15 MeV, with optimal performance at 100% replacement. Higher HSMs content increased radiation shielding performance, with full replacement providing the best barrier, making it a sustainable and efficient alternative for nuclear power plants, medical centers, and nuclear engineering research institutions.
Abouelnour et al. (2026) studied this question.