## 1 Introduction  
In the western frontier and border areas of China, the demand for high-quality mineral additions is exacerbated by the continued expansion of infrastructure development and special environmental factors, such as sulphate erosion and alkali-activated aggregate problems. Due to the scarcity of artificial mineral additions (e.g., fly ash and mineral powders) in less industrially developed regions and high transport costs, it has become imperative to explore and utilize local natural mineral resources. Preliminary studies conducted by our team have shown [1] that properly treated volcanic rocks from Hotan, Xinjiang, meet the current quality standards in China (JG/7315-2011, DL/T5273-2012) [2, 3]. However, the activity index of volcanic rock powder in this study was only 57.8% at 28 days, limiting its potential for widespread application. Therefore, this study aims to improve the activity and concrete reinforcement effect of volcanic rock powder, facilitating its large-scale application in the Hotan area of Xinjiang. This will realize solid waste resourcefulness, save project costs, and contribute to environmental protection. Studies by scholars both domestically and internationally have shown that mechanical refinement or ultrafine techniques exploring the activity of powder materials have primarily focused on artificial mineral additions, such as ultrafine fly ash, ground blast furnace slag, ultrafine ground limestone powder, and silica fume. Studies have confirmed [4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9] that the volcanic ash activity of such silica, aluminium, or calcium-rich materials is enhanced after mechanical treatment, thereby effectively improving the durability of concrete, including fluidity, strength, and shrinkage. Notably, ultrafine ground stone ash powder (with a specific surface area of 1200 m\({}^{2}\)/kg) can react with C\({}_{3}\)A to produce an expansion product, Calcium Carbonate Aluminate Hydrate, effectively compensating for concrete shrinkage problems [10; 11; 12]. Due to its economy and practicality, chemical activation strategies have garnered significant research attention. Most domestic and international studies have centered on fly ash, which is chemically similar to volcanic rock flour [13; 14; 15; 16; 17]. Numerous studies [18; 19; 20; 21] have augmented the activity of volcanic ash materials by introducing chemical reagents, such as Na(OH)\({}_{2}\), Na\({}_{2}\)CO\({}_{3}\), NaCl, CaCl\({}_{2}\), CaSO\({}_{4}\), and organohydroxamines, to bolster mechanical properties, enhance durability, and reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions. For low-activity natural minerals, thermal activation has proven to be an effective method for enhancing volcanic ash activity. Related studies [22; 23; 24; 25] have evaluated the calcined activity of various carbonates and volcanic rocks with differing lithologies, highlighting the positive impact of calcination conditions on activity enhancement, pore structure optimization, and strength increase. Despite progress in enhancing the activity and concrete properties of volcanic ash materials, challenges remain. The excessive fineness of mechanically ground powder can lead to increased water demand, reduced concrete strength, and escalated energy consumption [26; 27]. The use of chemicals might alter the alkalinity of the concrete environment, affecting workability and potentially inducing alkali-silicate reactions, while the introduction of chlorinated salts may cause the corrosion of reinforcing steel [28; 29]. Additionally, excessively high calcination temperatures not only elevate energy consumption but may also induce changes in the material's crystalline phase or even generate inert mineral phases [30; 31]. Although scholars both domestically and internationally have achieved notable results in studying the pros and cons of natural volcanic ash as an addition [32; 33; 34; 35; 36; 37], material properties vary significantly across regions due to factors like diagenesis age, morphological characteristics, chemical composition, and crystal content [38].