The research has focused on the dealkalization of red mud after active roasting and water leaching, which is obtained from bauxite during alumina production. The main factors such as roasting temperature, roasting time, water leaching stage, leaching temperature, leaching reaction time and liquid to solid ratio were investigated. The mechanism of dealkalization was in-depth studied by using ICP-AES, XRD, TG-DSC, SEM-EDS and leaching kinetic. The results show that the dealkalization rate reached 82% under the condition of roasting temperature of 700 degrees C, roasting time of 30 min, four stage water leaching, liquid to solid ratio of 7 mL/g, leaching temperature of 90 degrees C and reaction time of 60 min. The diffraction peak of Na6CaAl6Si6(CO3)O-24 center dot 2H(2)O in red mud was decreased during the active roasting process, whereas the mineral phases of NaOH center dot H2O and Na2Ca(CO3)(2) were appeared. The content of alkali obviously decreased and the grade of other elements increased during the process of active roasting and water leaching, which was in favor of next application process of red mud. The water leaching was controlled by internal diffusion of SCM and the apparent activation energy was 22.63 kJ/mol. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.