A raw clay material deposit in Burkina Faso has been used for refractory bricks production in the lab. The
extruded raw clay material has been fired at 1400°C to produce a chamotte grog that has been crushed into different
particle sizes. These have been mixed with 14%.wt of the raw clay material as a binder. The admixture has then been
pressed at 120MPa, dried at 105°C and then fired at 1400 or 1500°C to get cubical specimens. The effect of increasing
temperature is clearly shown by the significant difference between the mechanical properties of the bricks fired at 1400
and those fired at 1500°C. The bulk density (2.16g/cm3
), the open porosity (11.99%), the compressive strength
(99.2MPa) and the refractoriness under load (ISO T0.5 = 1419°C) of the brick fired at 1500°C are in the range of many
commercial grade refractory bricks.

Refractory bricks, refractoriness under load, mullite, cristobalite