A new functional ceramic with excellent far infrared radiation properties was successfully prepared from iron ore tailings by incorporating tourmaline particles. The effect of tourmaline content on sintering behavior and far infrared radiation properties of ceramics were analyzed in detail. The results reveal that the addition of tourmaline can significantly increase the far infrared emissivity of prepared ceramics as high as 0.925 with the proportion of tourmaline content at 5 wt.%. After adding tourmaline, Fe²⁺ from tourmaline replaced Ca²⁺ of augite to form isomorphic structure, which lead to unit cell shrinkage and lattice distortion as well as the symmetry reduction of lattice vibration, thus improving the far infrared emissivity of the prepared ceramics. Based on the merits highlighted the ceramics from iron ore tailings can be explored as an excellent infrared material suitable for different application such as energy saving and emission reduction, in addition to resolving the environmental concerns due to large scale waste of iron ore tailings.