As the sand market becomes more lucrative, rock and gravel quarries are expanding to make use of the fines generated by their crushing circuits. Find out how the Weir Minerals’ Sand Wash Plant can help you take advantage of this new market.
You might not realise it, but humble sand is one of the foundations of modern life. A key component in cement, glass, paper and silicon chips, it underpins everything from the home you live in - to the device you’re reading this article on.
Driven by global population growth, increasing urbanisation and our insatiable appetite for digital devices, international demand for sand has never been higher.
However, not all sand is created equal and most of the world’s most accessible sand deposits, such as deserts, are near-useless when it comes to sand’s most critical applications.
These attractive market conditions have led owners of traditional rock and gravel quarries to examine how they can maximise the sand produced as a by-product of their regular operations – but as many are discovering, high-quality, saleable sand can be difficult to ascertain.
Join us as we take a quick look at the market and geological forces driving this rising demand, and how quarry owners can best take advantage of them.
Why is the supply of sand shrinking?
For most commercial uses, angular sand, usually found in riverbeds and beaches, is far more useful than the smooth sand you see in deserts. The angular sand binds together much more strongly, and can often contain moisture which reduces costs in concrete production.
However, extracting sand from these locations is increasingly difficult, often due to environmental legislation designed to limit the ecological impact of sand operations on our remaining wetlands.
With demand high and usable sand deposits in short supply, research is being done into substitute materials, such as the utilisation of bamboo – but this work is still very much in the exploratory phase.
There is however, one market ready, sustainable substitute to natural sand.
Manufactured sand
Today the answer to sand depletion is to simply create more sand. As sand remains the optimum material for concrete and glass production, the industry is focusing on alternative methods of production, rather than materials.
Manufactured sand (man-sand or M-sand) is the production of sand from other materials.
Producers use crushing and screening plants to crush rock to the size of sand particles, with the ability to create specific particle shapes and sizes using a variety of equipment and screening techniques. For example, a vertical impact crusher can create a fractured sand particle from rock which mimics the angular/cubic shape of most river sand.
M-sand has a number of drawbacks, such as its lack of moisture content, which increases the water consumed to ensure the product’s workability. Furthermore, manufactured sand contains more fines, requiring a washing and screening process before the end product can be sold.
There are some benefits, too - although the sand requires washing, man-sand is less likely to contain silt or clay (an often occurrence in natural sand) lowering the risk of contamination.
Both traditional and non-traditional sand producers are now recognising the potential for man-sand to generate a sizable return, which has the potential to increase as production is optimised.
The expanding market
Sand has traditionally been a by-product for quarries – with an emphasis on removing all fines from a crushing circuit in order to avoid clogging the equipment. After this separation, quarries usually disposed of the fines as a waste product.
It will not surprise you to learn that as the sand market becomes more lucrative, traditional rock and gravel quarries have begun to expand their operations to make use of the fines generated by their crushing circuits.
Today we’re seeing an explosion of new entrants into the market, with varying levels of sand production experience.
Supporting shifting priorities
If you’re looking to include sand wash and production in your quarry’s process, we’re here to help, with equipment and expertise developed over decades in the business.
Our team have a variety of solutions to suit your operations and objectives, from a custom-built plant, to a highly-engineered compact wash plant using Weir Minerals’ latest technology, to a traditional low-cost and mid-capacity product such as a sand screw.
Our new range of compact sand wash plants are ideally suited to operations looking to expand into this new market, these complete solutions are designed to reliably take care of the vital process of washing sourced or manufactured sand for sale.
The Weir Minerals sand wash plant offers all the benefits of a custom-built plant; increased capacity, low operating costs while being fully supported by our unrivalled global service network. Each component product of this plant offers the very best technology in capturing saleable finer particles.
Although this plant contains some of our most advanced technology – it’s not a black box. Our plants are designed to be portable, easy to assemble, maintain and operate. This plant can meet the needs of even the most experienced of sand producer while proving intuitive and easy to operate for even a new entrant into the market.
However, we understand there is no one-size-fits all solution for sand production. Our expert engineers will work with you to identify and implement the best solution for your objectives, whether that’s upgrading your existing machinery to take advantage of this changing market or a custom-built Weir Minerals Sand Wash Plant.
