10 votes

The impact of sand mining - current rates predicted to be unsustainable

Posted by boxer_dogs_dance
Tags: sustainability, water, mining, materials, sand, ecosystems, rivers, erosion, society, communities, livelihoods, author.julian leyland, source.the conversation
https://theconversation.com/how-sand-mining-is-eroding-rivers-livelihoods-and-cultures-251290

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Title
How sand mining is eroding rivers, livelihoods and cultures
Authors
Julian Leyland
Published
Mar 5 2025
Word count
942 words

8 comments

  1. [3]
    PuddleOfKittens
    Link
    Desert sand can be used in concrete, this is a myth. There are advantages to beach sand (mainly cost and flexibility with regards to water IIRC), but it's not the end of the world. High-purity...

    Sand underpins everything from skyscrapers to smartphones. Sharp sand (as opposed to rounded desert sand) is the key ingredient in concrete, while high-purity silica sand is essential for making the silicon chips that power our digital devices.

    1. Desert sand can be used in concrete, this is a myth. There are advantages to beach sand (mainly cost and flexibility with regards to water IIRC), but it's not the end of the world.
    2. High-purity silica is technically essential to semiconductors, but 1) silica is common and chips don't use that much of it, so there's no real demand to look for alternatives, and 2) if people start actually looking for options that don't need high-purity silica, then they'll probably find them very quickly. It's like people in the 1890s assuming that the only alternative to horses will ever be 1890s automobile designs.

    Basically every "critical <mineral> shortage" is just economics - what they mean by "shortage" is "we'll have to do some other thing, which costs more money because we never bothered to make it cheap".

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      Raspcoffee
      Link Parent
      To an extend, though mining is non-renewable in almost all cases(ofc that means we need better recycling policies and more). That said, sand might be a bit different in this case. Research to make...

      To an extend, though mining is non-renewable in almost all cases(ofc that means we need better recycling policies and more). That said, sand might be a bit different in this case. Research to make coarse sand finer, recycle chips, work with alternative material would probably benefit us all a lot in more than just making the industry benefit more. Which I assume was your point, but still wanted to write this down to point it out. So often the argument is 'we need this resource and don't have alternatives' means 'we can't be bothered to invest in R&D where it contributes us all over short term gains'.

      4 votes
      1. Tiraon
        Link Parent
        Also generally disincentivize somehow the production of ready for garbage dump goods, making goods unrepairable or artificially uneconomical to repair and so much more.

        ofc that means we need better recycling policies and more

        Also generally disincentivize somehow the production of ready for garbage dump goods, making goods unrepairable or artificially uneconomical to repair and so much more.

        2 votes
  2. trim
    Link
    Practical Engineering channel on YouTube covered this a little while ago. I like that channel. It was about the question "are we running out of sand?". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB0qDQFTyE8&t=18

    Practical Engineering channel on YouTube covered this a little while ago. I like that channel. It was about the question "are we running out of sand?".

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB0qDQFTyE8&t=18

    3 votes
  3. [4]
    tanglisha
    Link
    I wonder how hard it would be to reclaim some from concrete; I assume glass and silicon chips wouldn’t work because of the structural changes. I imagine it wouldn’t have to travel as far.

    I wonder how hard it would be to reclaim some from concrete; I assume glass and silicon chips wouldn’t work because of the structural changes. I imagine it wouldn’t have to travel as far.

    1 vote
    1. OBLIVIATER
      Link Parent
      I think concrete usually gets recycled into aggregate as a filling material which isn't quite as good as fully recycling it, but it does fill an important job.

      I think concrete usually gets recycled into aggregate as a filling material which isn't quite as good as fully recycling it, but it does fill an important job.

      3 votes
    2. [2]
      chocobean
      Link Parent
      There's current efforts to turn concrete slag into cement: Reinventing the world's favourite building material (Wapo, 2024 Dec) But it sounds like the cement glue will still need gravel and sand...

      There's current efforts to turn concrete slag into cement:

      Reinventing the world's favourite building material (Wapo, 2024 Dec)

      But it sounds like the cement glue will still need gravel and sand input before it becomes more concrete. It was a shock for me to hear that Dubai was built using Australian sand, not the stuff blowing around next to it, because the round shape of desert sand doesn't hold together as well as sharp river sand. Surely there's a way to crush up round sand into sharp bits? A quick google search says then it would be sharp powder, and the energy involved to crush silica crystals would not be green nor economical.

      2 votes
      1. tanglisha
        Link Parent
        Materials science really is its own thing.

        Materials science really is its own thing.

        2 votes