Abstract
In the last 15 years, it has become clear that the availability of good quality natural sand is decreasing. The shortage of the resources of natural sand opened the door for using by-products as fine aggregate. Reuse of by-products as a partial or full replacement of fine aggregate in construction activities not only reduces the demand for extraction of natural raw materials, but also saves landfill space. There are many studies reused granulate blast-furnace slag (GBFS) and copper slag (CS) as a part of fine aggregate. Others recycled them as a part of binder material (after suitable grinding). In this article, an overview of the previous studies carried out on the use of GBFS and CS as a partial or complete replacement of natural fine aggregate in traditional mortars and concretes based on Portland cement (PC). Fresh properties, hardened properties and durability of these mortars and concretes are reviewed.