Open pit sand mining. Sand mining

Let me say right away that this business is suitable for entrepreneurs in those cities where there are more or less large rivers with a sandy bottom. There are two options for starting a business: rent a dredging machine (to try how things go) - this is approximately 20-25 thousand rubles of rent per month. Or buy it - approximately 800 thousand - 1 million rubles at once.

Well, registering as an individual entrepreneur, paying taxes, hiring dredging machine operators, etc. Its productivity is approximately 15-20 machines of sand per day. Pure river sand sells very well, because it is needed both in construction and in household farming. Having “recaptured” the initial expenses, you can gradually reach a level of net income of up to 100,000 rubles per month. What do you think?

Opinions on this matter from our users

This is the first time I’ve heard of this, that sand from the bottom of the river is sold, and why is such sand worse than usual? The business is certainly interesting, but I definitely wouldn’t do something like this, even as a last resort, something tells me that nothing profitable will come of it.

roman-maurinio, this idea was no less surprising to me than it was to you. If we take into account that the sand is not golden, then it will need to be transported by KAMAZ trucks, that is, huge financial investments will be required for equipment. In addition, all kinds of ecologists, representatives of local authorities and others are unlikely to approve of such excavations - sand is taken out, the banks are washed away, mud goes downstream (purely assumptions, I don’t understand this technology). You'll still have to pay kickbacks.
The idea is definitely not for one person. We need to involve partners and investors.

And I was also surprised, because compared to ordinary sand from quarries, it won’t be possible to load it right away, you still need time and equipment to dry it, and then look for transport, in general, it would be stupid to start with that.

So, here they have already started calling the working (that is, implemented!) idea stupid, which, in general, is forgivable for people who do not live in the city on the Volga. To me, as a person who lived in Astrakhan for 20 years, the idea does not seem stupid. Firstly, river sand (mined from the bottom) is clean and fine. Secondly, a plot of land with an area of ​​6 acres (the size of a typical dacha) is sufficient for drying it, and for transportation you need two two-axle trucks (which are also rented in the region). The authorities of a city or region are themselves interested in carrying out dredging work, therefore, as practice shows, they not only do not create obstacles and do not demand bribes, but are also ready to pay for such work!

Of course, the business idea is interesting for me personally, since this is the first time I’ve heard about such an idea. It seems that there is nothing complicated here, but a very large investment in equipment is needed, since I know that in order to extract sand in this way, you need expensive modern equipment.

Ostrovitjanin
What is the positive side of the fact that sand is mined from the day of the river? The very first thing that just popped up for me was that environmentalists would really have their brains soaring, but otherwise I think there won’t be any problems. I toured the facilities under construction, collected orders and started doing business. I think if you rent all the equipment, the costs won’t be that big.

The main advantage of river sand is that it is clean and has a more or less uniform consistency. There is a lot of it there, and so much is still applied every year that dredging can be carried out annually, “fishing” for up to 1000 cars of sand for sale! Can you imagine how good this money is? Plus, since the state has farmed out dredging to private owners, municipalities are willing to pay for this type of work. It turns out there are two sources of income at once. Of course, people will have to hire 8-10 people, but the cost of their salaries will amount to 30 percent of the net profit of the owner or tenant of the dredger!

But the main disadvantage is that river sand is of low quality, fine, and demand is gradually shifting towards a higher quality product - alluvial quarry sand, which is more effective in the production of concrete, and its use in the production of asphalt allows saving on expensive chemical additives. So this business, in my opinion, has little prospects.

We don’t have large sand quarries in our region, and importing from neighboring regions is very expensive, so people prefer to buy river sand for household needs. It may indeed be smaller, but the price is not bad for the end consumer!

For what economic needs does the population buy river sand? Personally, I have never bought sand before, and I don’t even understand why the population might need it. if you are building something, you need to order special sand, obviously river sand is not suitable for construction, you need special sand. Well, I’m not a pro in these matters, that’s why I’m asking.

Construction work - masonry, screed, plastering. The downside of fine sand is that it shrinks quickly when making concrete mortar. However, builders usually find a way out - they add a little soap solution or shampoo to the solution. Still, coarse sand is best for such work.

Apparently you are a builder? But I also worked at a construction site, and I have never seen anything like this. Well, okay, maybe the sand wasn’t just from the river, but high-quality quarry sand. But still, it is no easier to order normal sand than river sand, which is not very suitable for construction work. Is it really that much more expensive than the career one?

I think that you can, of course, sell sand from the river, but is this allowed by nature conservation in Russia? I think no. I think there will be demand, not all builders use high-quality materials in construction, my husband works in construction, and he says such things that you are surprised that half the country has not collapsed.

Well, how is it not allowed? And then how are houses built in Russia? After all, this sand is needed for cement, and embankments are also made for the foundation if the ground is soft and the house may sag in the future. Everything is allowed in Russia.

It is allowed and even encouraged as long as you are doing dredging that is beneficial to the river. As for the low quality: I know firsthand that river sand is widely used in construction, and its quality is satisfactory for the majority of clients. I repeat, in a number of regions of Russia, quarry sand will cost almost twice as much as river sand, and few people will purchase it for construction!

In our country, on the contrary, they carry sand and pour it onto the seashore, because over time the sand is washed with water and leaves. So they prepare the beaches for the season in this way, bringing sand and pouring it onto the shore. Maybe they should be advised to bring fine sand from Astrakhan, otherwise it’s unknown where they’re bringing it to the Odessa beach, maybe from a neighboring beach.

Wow, I don’t know, I don’t understand anything about this, this is definitely not my topic, probably, this is something new and unrecognized for me. Well, I wonder where you came up with the amount of 100,000 per month in net earnings? How much does one machine of sand cost you?

Ostrovitjanin,
No, well, the fact is that a certain amount can be exported from certain zones. Here in our region, in the Belorechensky district, they showed on TV that they were so carried away by this matter that people had nowhere to go, they dug everything so much that they formed huge holes and floods, entire villages were suffering. So my point is, how controlled is it all? That is, this business is very often conducted without following the rules.

Tatyana, I think that even the word is often an understatement, in most cases it is not conducted according to the rules, everyone would like to grab more jackpots, but the fact that people have no place to swim, or they violate something else, this doesn’t bother almost anyone .

Exhaustible resources are not just hydrocarbons, forests or fresh water. Scientists say that the earth is facing a shortage of sand: demand for it is growing rapidly, and reserves are dwindling.

SERGEY MANUKOV

Many or few

As a child, sitting on cloudless evenings on the seashore and looking at the sky strewn with myriads of stars, many wondered: what is more - stars or grains of sand? It is, of course, impossible to accurately count both of them; all calculations are very, very approximate.

Scientists from the University of Hawaii recently tried to count grains of sand. If we assume that the average grain of sand has a certain size, then we can count how many of them will fit, for example, in a teaspoon, and then try to count all the beaches, banks of rivers and lakes, and deserts too. As a result of very complex and troublesome calculations, American scientists found that there are, of course, approximately 7.5 x 10 18 grains of sand on Earth.

The number of stars, unlike grains of sand, has not decreased in recent years, but has been growing thanks to the achievements of astronomers and the work of space telescopes like Hubble, which are discovering more and more new space objects. Also, of course, a very rough approximation gives 7x10 22 stars. It turns out that for every grain of sand there are about 10 thousand stars. Is it a lot or a little? Of course, everything is relative. Ten drops of water contain as many H2O molecules as there are stars in the sky. There are approximately the same number of nitrogen and oxygen molecules in just a quarter cubic centimeter of air at normal temperature and pressure!

On the one hand, 7.5 quintillion grains of sand is a lot, but, on the other hand, if we talk about the balance of supply and demand for sand, then this balance tends to be negative.

“The demand for sand is growing rapidly and the supply is increasingly limited,” explains Jianguo Liu, director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainable Development at Michigan State University. “This imbalance will have very dire consequences for both the environment and humanity as a whole and for the global economy. The problem did not arise yesterday, but every year it becomes more serious and acute due to the rapid development of different regions of the planet. Industrialization and urbanization are all dramatically increasing the demand for sand.”

Jianguo Liu knows what he's talking about. He is one of the authors of a large September article on the topic. The fact that the upcoming sand shortage should be taken very seriously is eloquently indicated by the fact that a disappointing forecast was published by such an authoritative journal in the scientific world as Science, which is very demanding about published materials.

The sand is running out

The vast majority of people, when talking about limited natural resources, mention fossil fuels, trees and fresh water. Today, Jianguo Liu is sure, one more resource should be added to this list - sand.

It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that the modern world is built on sand: most buildings and structures are made of concrete, which consists mainly of sand and gravel. In 2010, the construction sector alone consumed about 11 billion tons of sand. It is most mined in the Asia-Pacific region. Next come Europe and North America. Sand mining is a huge business: experts estimate it at $70 billion. In the United States alone, last year the mining of construction sand alone was worth $8.9 billion.

Over the past five years, global sand production has increased by a quarter (24%), and trade in it has increased almost sixfold over the same time!

Sand is also widely used in the production of asphalt. Between 1900 and 2010, the volume of natural resources used in buildings and transport infrastructure increased 23 times. Sand and gravel accounts for the lion's share of this growth, at 79%, or 28.6 gigatons (2010).

Glass is made from sand. It is widely used in semiconductors. Well, the most modern area of ​​its use is in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to strengthen the walls of cracks that go to great depths in the ground. Finally, sand is indispensable in the extraction of minerals such as shale oil and gas.

Sand is found on almost the entire surface of the Earth. Since this resource is very accessible, it is not easy to keep statistics on its production. The numbers here are greatly underestimated, because not all countries keep full official statistics and records. Suffice it to say that the statistics, for example, do not include sand, which is used in shale mining and for beach restoration. Sand is superior in extraction and use to all fossil fuels and biomass. In general, after air and water, it is the most used natural resource by humanity.

It is much easier and cheaper to extract sand than other resources. Add to this the widespread misconception that sand supplies are inexhaustible, and it becomes clear why Jianguo Liu and his colleagues are warning of an impending shortage.

Three years ago, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) concluded that the extraction of sand and gravel “far exceeds the rate of its natural renewal.”

“There is a huge gap between the scale of the problem and public awareness of its complexity,” their report says. “The lack of global monitoring of sand and gravel mining undoubtedly contributes to a lack of knowledge and understanding that leads to a lack of action.”

Like the extraction of other natural resources, sand mining has many negative consequences for both nature and humans. The most obvious and rapid is the erosion of the banks of rivers and lakes. In addition, intensive sand mining destroys corals and algae, destroys ecosystems and habitats of numerous animal species, including fish, dolphins, crustaceans, and crocodiles. In the Cambodian province of Tatay, according to local tourism official Chea Manit, catches of fish, crab and lobster in the river, from which sand has been taken for several months, have decreased by 85%. After this, the area ceased to be popular with tourists.

Sand mining weakens the protection of coasts from storms. (In Sri Lanka, it has been shown to significantly worsen the effects of the 2004 tsunami.) Sand mining leads to water shortages and crop failures. There are also less obvious consequences. For example, scientists have recently proven that intensive sand mining leads to a sharp increase in populations of... malaria mosquitoes.

“Large-scale sand mining increases the vulnerability of local communities to natural disasters,” said Aurora Torres, a researcher at the German Center for Integrative Biodiversification Research and one of the authors of the September article in Science. “It creates and intensifies sociopolitical conflicts and gradually displaces entire populations.”

The social consequences of sand mining include the so-called sand mafia. In a number of developing countries, such as India and Bangladesh, this type of organized crime is the most powerful. This summer, a constable died at the hands of the Indian sand mafia in the area of ​​the Jamna River (Yamuna; Haryana state). The number of law enforcement officers injured and even killed in the fight against sand mining runs into the dozens. Mafiosi do not spare not only the police, but also their competitors. Hundreds of people have become victims of sand wars in India in recent years.

Cambodian ban

The extraction and use of natural resources has always fueled social and political conflicts. Today, another “actor” has appeared in these conflicts - sand.

In mid-July 2017, Cambodia banned its export. It's no secret that the ban is primarily aimed at Singapore, where, according to the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy of Cambodia, the lion's share of Cambodian sand went. The complete ban comes after a temporary suspension of exports in November last year. Even earlier, in May 2009, Phnom Penh imposed an embargo on the export of certain types of sand, primarily river sand.

In announcing the ban, Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy spokesman Meng Saktera stressed that the government had responded to the concerns of the public and environmentalists and agreed that sand mining on a gigantic scale does cause great harm to the environment.

Conservationists in Cambodia were very outraged by the colossal discrepancies in UN statistics: the volumes of sand imports by Singapore and exports from Cambodia categorically do not coincide.

According to UN statistics, Singapore imported 73.6 million tons of sand from Cambodia between 2007 and 2016. According to Phnom Penh, sand exports to the city-state amounted to... 2.7 million tons.

Most experts attribute the astronomical difference to serious corruption in Cambodia. It is not surprising that many environmentalists are skeptical that a complete embargo can be implemented in practice.

Sand corruption flourishes, of course, not only in Cambodia, but also in other countries in Southeast Asia. In 2010, several dozen Malaysian officials were charged with bribes and receiving sexual favors in exchange for permission to illegally export sand to Singapore. Some of the accused ended up behind bars.

Vanishing Islands

Three years ago, UNEP declared Singapore the largest importer of sand on the planet, with 5.4 tons of sand purchased from other countries per inhabitant (UN Comtrade, 2014). The city-state needs sand not only for construction, like everyone else, but also for a program that has been ongoing for half a century to increase its territory due to land reclamation. Sand plays the main role in this process.

In the summer of 1965, after gaining independence, the area of ​​Singapore, including 63 islands, was 581 km 2. In a little more than half a century, thanks to land reclamation, it has grown by almost 140 km 2 and now amounts to 720 km 2.

By 2030, the area of ​​the city-state should increase by another 100 km 2. Along with the territory, the population is also growing: in 1960 it was 1.63 million people, and in 2016 it was already 5.6 million.

The surface of the main island used to be hilly, but now it is as flat as a billiard table. Sand from the razed hills was used to fill new areas. Having quickly used up their own meager supplies, Singaporeans turned to their neighbors for help. Over the past 20 years, they have imported 517 million tons of sand (UN Comtrade, 2014). An insatiable “sand appetite” is the main reason for Singapore’s not the best relations with neighboring countries, and above all with Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur often threatens to cut off drinking water for Singaporeans, which they, along with many other things, do not have.

Before Cambodia, Indonesia was the main supplier of sand to Singapore. Ten years ago, at the beginning of 2007, Jakarta announced a complete ban on the export of Indonesian sand to Singapore, the share of which in Singapore imports exceeded 90%. The ban was not unexpected, if only because over the years of selling sand to Singapore, Indonesia lost 24 sand islands. In total, Indonesia has 17.5 thousand islands, of which only 6 thousand are inhabited, that is, every third. The estimate, however, is approximate: there are so many islands that even the Indonesians themselves do not know their exact number. Relations between the neighbors over sand have become so strained that some in Jakarta have even called for a military blockade of “insatiable Singapore.”

In Indonesia, they were afraid of losing not only several islands, but also the surrounding ocean with all its riches. The embargo provoked a “sand crisis” in Singapore: construction almost completely stopped, and sand prices increased seven (!) times: from $6.5 per ton to $50. After 2007, Singaporean builders diversified their sand sources to include China, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines and Cambodia. Singapore Builders Association President Kenneth Liu hopes, writes the Straits Times, that diversification will help soften the Cambodian ban.

The increase in the area of ​​Singapore leads to the disappearance of entire islands from its neighbors and to the fact that the boundaries in this region are constantly changing. It is not surprising that most Southeast Asian countries have banned the export of sand to Singapore.

The bans gave birth to a lucrative smuggling trade. Singaporeans are most often in no hurry to remove the sand themselves. In Cambodia, for example, sand smuggling is usually done by the Vietnamese. They sail at night on small barges to the Indonesian and Malaysian islands, suck up hundreds of tons of sand from the seabed with dredge pumps and take it to Singapore.

Representatives of Greenpeace in Indonesia claim that even after the sand embargo, smugglers export about 300 million m 3 every year. Jakarta says they have the situation under control, but the islands in the Riau archipelago continue to melt before our eyes. If measures are not taken, then, environmentalists are sounding the alarm, seven of the 83 islands of the archipelago may disappear.

Who needs it

In Singapore, they probably consider the number seven unlucky. Malaysia was the first to announce a ban on the export of sand to the country - in 1997. Exactly ten years later, Indonesia followed suit, and another decade later, Cambodia. Now it's Vietnam's turn. Eight years ago, Hanoi, at the same time as Phnom Penh, banned the export of river sand from the country. It seems that a complete embargo on the export of sand, following the example of the Cambodian one, is not far off. The decision on the upcoming ban is obvious, because, according to the forecast of the director of the Department of Construction Materials under the Ministry of Construction of Vietnam, Pham Van Bac, construction sand will run out in three years, in 2020! Along with Singapore, Dubai is one of the most insatiable in terms of sand. The city on the coast of the Persian Gulf amazes with many architectural wonders and wonders, all created from the same sand.

The $12 billion project, the Palm Jumeirah artificial island chain, required 186.5 million cubic meters of sand and 10 million cubic meters of gravel.

Dubai did not limit itself to just one “island” project. Immediately after the delivery of Jumeirah, now considered the largest artificial island on the planet, a second project was announced - Palm Jebel Ali, which should be one and a half times larger than the first and become a place for a quarter of a million people to live. The third island project - Peace - is even bigger. It will consist of 300 artificial islands with an area of ​​14 thousand to 42 thousand m 2, separated from each other by hundreds of meters of sea. Using them you can study the world map: for example, in Mir there is also the island of St. Petersburg. The cost of the project is $14 billion, and it requires 450 million tons of sand.

The construction of artificial islands is being carried out by Nakheel Properties. Upon completion, all three projects will increase Dubai's coastline by 520 km. Dubai has practically no sand left; it has to be imported from other countries. For example, sand for the construction of the tallest building on the planet - Burj Khalifa - was purchased in distant Australia.

“Italy is being stolen away for souvenirs!”

Sand is stolen not only by smugglers, but also... by tourists - along with pebbles from seaside resorts. Everyone, of course, does this not on an industrial scale, but, on the other hand, there are so many tourists who want to take home something as a souvenir that they threaten the very existence of the famous sandy beaches. For example, in Italy.

Several years ago the Italian press sounded the alarm. The most authoritative publication on the peninsula, La Repubblica, came out with the loud headline “Italy is being stolen away for souvenirs!” The article was not about the wreckage of the Colosseum and the Forum - they always tried to take a pebble as a souvenir there, but about seemingly unnecessary sand and pebbles. As an example, Repubblica cited the island of Elba, where about 1.5 million tourists vacation annually. If every second person grabs a handful of sand or pebbles they like, then the total will be several tens of thousands of tons. No one has counted the losses of Elbe from vacationers, but the fact that they are great can be seen in the example of Portoferraio, where, according to Homer, the Argonauts led by Jason were shipwrecked. Thanks to the efforts of tourists, the town has practically lost its famous spotted pebbles, which, according to legend, were formed as a result of drops of sweat from the Argonauts falling on them.

The sand and souvenir business is on a grand scale. You can buy sand and pebbles from famous Italian resorts without even vacationing in the Apennines.

The starting price for a handful of sand from the best Italian beaches on virtual auctions, including e-bay, is €1.99.

However, erosion is much more dangerous for tourists on the sandy beaches of Italy. Its negative impact is especially great in river deltas. Suffice it to say that near the famous Arno, on which Florence stands, erosion has eaten up almost one and a half kilometers of the coast over the course of a century.

About half of the sea beaches also suffer from erosion. In the southern province of Puglia, the loss of the word "sandy" threatens two out of every three beaches. Local authorities, of course, are not sitting idly by. They do not buy sand in distant Southeast Asia, but try to intercept it from their neighbors. Of course, it would not be entirely correct to talk about sand wars between Italian cities, but serious passions are running high. Relations between neighbors are so tense that several years ago, when the authorities of Lecce decided to borrow 200 thousand m 3 of sand in Brindisi to replenish sand on their beaches, the Italian Court of Appeal had to intervene in the matter. The judges sided with Brindisi. The municipality of Lecce found a solution: sand was bought in Albania.

Optimists hope to avoid sand wars, although the situation with sand is threatening. It can be assumed that other suppliers, when they understand the seriousness of the problem, will sooner or later ban the export of sand abroad. In general, builders in Singapore, Dubai and other countries need to at least partially replace sand with other materials as quickly as possible. For example, you can try to use sludge for land reclamation, and straw and wood in the construction of buildings. Asphalt, concrete and glass should be reused. The production of artificial sand also looks promising.

Sand is in demand today in many areas of production. Especially a lot of it is spent on the production of building materials and mixtures. Depending on a particular technological process, different types of sand are used. Methods for extracting the latter are determined by their location (mountain, river, sea) and technology.

Dry method

This method is used to extract the vast majority of sand from open pits. The developed deposit is pre-prepared. Bulldozers and scrapers remove overburden - a layer of soil and clay. The removed overburden exposes sand deposits and makes it possible to determine its coefficient (the ratio of its volume to the size of the mineral).

Then they begin to lay transport trenches and working projections. The dimensions of the latter are determined by the excavator’s digging height.

Excavators with one or more buckets are used to extract sand from quarries. The bucket, depending on the task, can scoop up from 0.25 to 15 m3 of sand. If the latter is very powerful, then its development is carried out layer by layer.

Dust particles of clay color quarry sand in a yellow-orange hue and worsen its important properties. Therefore, when using this raw material to produce mortars or products, it is additionally purified. Such purified sand is widely in demand in construction:

• included in plastering and masonry mixtures;
• filler for sand-lime brick and aerated concrete.

Hydromechanized method

Hydromechanized extraction of sand from quarries uses a lot of water, which is pumped from a nearby reservoir by a pumping station. Water comes out through the hydraulic monitor under strong pressure in one powerful jet, eroding the desired section of the embankment. The resulting slurry of sand and water flows naturally (if the necessary slope is created) into hydraulic dumps, or is forcibly pumped out by dredgers.

This method gives better sand purity, as it removes debris and foreign impurities.

Sand is removed from the bottom of reservoirs using special equipment on pontoons, which is stabilized using a system of cables, piles and anchors. Bottom sand is extracted using the following equipment:

• scrapers;
• dredgers;
• dredgers;
• dragline excavators;
• centrifugal pumps.

Using a dredger and using a mechanical ripper, bottom sand is fed through a pontoon slurry pipeline to hydraulic dumps. The result is sand of the best quality, applicable in any construction process.

Sand mining in a quarry has many nuances. Natural sand, mined in natural conditions, is a rock with a loose structure. The mixture may include various grains of natural minerals. Different types of sand are successfully used for construction. In most cases, river or quarry is used, but the second type is in great demand due to its low price and good properties. To purchase the necessary high-quality material for construction, you will need to study all the main characteristics and types of quarry sand. And to find out how to open a sand mining business, you will need to familiarize yourself with the possible expenses and the list of necessary documents.

The main property of sand extracted from quarries is the absence of various impurities, as well as its maximum purity.

There are also a number of unchanged characteristics:

1. The fraction can vary in size from 1.5 to 5 mm.
2. Sand contains a small amount of dust, clay, and other impurities. This figure does not exceed 0.03%. If the value is exceeded, the quality of the composition deteriorates greatly and the material becomes unsuitable for construction needs.
3. The density of sand is 1.6 grams per cubic centimeter.

These are the main characteristics of quarry sand that you should pay special attention to when purchasing. Even minor changes can lead to major changes in the properties of the composition.

Quarry sand is divided into fine, coarse and medium fractions. This parameter should also be clarified upon purchase, since the diameter of the sand grains is very important during construction and mixing of cement composition.

The shades of the material can also vary greatly from each other and have a brown or amber-yellow color - depending on the quarry being mined, as well as the location of the deposit. This parameter must be taken into account only in the case of decorative sand treatment of some surface. During construction, the color indicator does not matter.

Varieties

Quarry sand is a unique material for construction needs, which can also be successfully used in industry and the national economy. Arrangement of a private territory or construction of a road surface - the material is of key importance in these processes. And this explains the increased demand for sand from the quarry.

Since mining sites can be located at a considerable distance from each other, the composition of the resulting material varies. For this reason, each type of sand has a different structure, composition, and grain size. To find out the final properties of sand, it is also necessary to study the methods of its extraction:

1. Screening.
2. Washing.
3. Open method.

All this will directly affect the type of material obtained.

According to the processing method that is used after obtaining the material, sand is divided into several varieties.

Alluvial

Alluvial sand is mined in quarries and other deposits using hydromechanical equipment. Using this technology, sand is obtained as clean as possible; it does not contain various impurities and other components harmful to the characteristics.

The equipment used makes it possible to immediately remove all unnecessary components during mining by leaching. That is why the method got its name - alluvial. This type of sand is the most appropriate for the production of bricks and concrete, and it is also often used in the construction of various types of premises, reinforced concrete products, and road construction.

Seeded

The name of the method speaks for itself. Screened sand is extracted using technical-mechanical screening, as a result of which the material is separated from large stones and particles. This method is considered quite simple. As a result, sand is used for making plaster or cement mortars, as well as for pouring cement.

This technique is also often used on private properties to separate large particles from the underlying sand material.

Sandy

Sandy sand is an unrefined mixture obtained from quarries. After mining, various components (impurities) remain in the sand, which are not removed during the process. The price for the material is the lowest, but the scope of use is limited, and therefore the material is not so widespread. Sand is used to fill the trench and level the terrain on the site. This variety is not suitable for more serious construction operations, since additional impurities greatly impair the characteristics.

Features of the mining process

The most popular is the open-pit mining method, when construction companies use bulldozers, excavators and other similar equipment. This method is the cheapest, but the disadvantage is that sand is not useful for all types of work.

Quarry sand mined in this way is mined in the upper layers of the soil, and therefore miners use the method of opening the top layer, and sometimes even explosives. The last nuance makes the business of extracting building materials dangerous.

There are times when the quarry is flooded with water. This situation should not stop miners, and special equipment has been developed to solve the problem. In this case, a dredging device is used, which is a powerful pump with which sand is extracted from the depths. Stability equipment is secured with anchors and powerful cables. You can also place it on board a specially equipped vessel. The sand that is sucked into the device is called pulp - it passes through the pulp channel, which is designed to filter out various harmful particles and impurities.

The important point is that after this process, the water returns to the quarry, and therefore there can be no talk of any drying. This mining method does not harm the environment. This is a description of the hydromechanized method.

There are also other cases when more specific equipment is used. It is not used regularly. For example, builders can use special sieves to sift out large stones and other particles. Using this method, it takes much longer to extract sand - this is the reason for its unpopularity. An ordinary metal mesh is also used, through which the sand is sifted by the hands of workers.

When the development of a new quarry begins, construction companies prepare all calculations and document them, and also coordinate their activities with the state. Without the necessary official papers, it is impossible to obtain permission to mine sand.

Areas of application

Since quarry sand is of good quality and complies with certain GOST standards, it is often used in construction, decoration and agriculture. Sand is especially often used for making concrete and bricks, as well as for the construction of residential buildings and roads.

Alluvial sand, which has a coarse fraction, has gained great popularity in the production of a good type of concrete, as well as in the creation of reinforced concrete structures.

Quarrying sand is in demand as the materials are often used to construct masonry, paving slabs and street curbs.

Since some types of sand do not contain impurities, they have good strength and will last for many years. For this reason, it is so important to study all the provided documentation and GOSTs before purchasing, otherwise there is a risk of purchasing low-quality material that will quickly fail.

For decorative purposes, sand is used in summer cottages or private buildings, and it is also used in children's playgrounds.

Sand mining business plan

Since sand mining in a quarry is a popular activity, many entrepreneurs want to start their own business with this activity. But extracting sand on an industrial scale is not an easy task. To open such a business, you need to have specific knowledge and also spend a lot of money. It is advisable to draw up a business plan in advance in order to calculate all the costs and know how to properly develop a quarry for sand extraction.

Registration of sand mining activities

To start your own business, you need to know how to register a quarry, and then register the enterprise in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. It is advisable to use an LLC based on the simplified tax system.

After this, the person receives the right to use the chosen quarry, according to the license. The license period will be approximately 5 years or slightly less, and after that the permit will need to be renewed.

Financial plan

To open a business, you need to take into account that large expenses will be required, including:

1. Buying an excavator. The cost will be approximately 1.5 million rubles.
2. A front loader costs about the same amount.
3. A dump truck costs 2.5 million rubles. The load capacity should be 18,000 kg.
4. A trailer for transporting the received material – 500,000 rubles.
5. Walkie-talkies for workers worth 25,000 rubles.
6. One fire shield – 8,000 rubles.
7. Tanks used for filling fuel with a volume of 200 liters cost 28,000 rubles.
8. Tank for filling oil - 9000 rubles.
9. One heater fueled with diesel fuel. Cost – 4000 rubles.
10. Gas stove – 7,000 rubles.
11. Gas cylinder – 3000 rubles.
12. A tank intended for filling drinking water – 5,000 rubles.
13. A generator installed on a trailer filled with diesel fuel costs 350,000 rubles.
14. Desks for workers – 4,000 rubles.
15. Chairs for workers – 2000 rubles.
16. Refrigerator – 5000 rubles.

You will also need to spend additional money on liquids to refill the equipment. A business plan is used to calculate costs.

From all this we can conclude that the total cost will be approximately 10 million rubles.

Sand is a finely fragmented fraction of rocks. It is formed naturally under the influence of long-term natural factors or is obtained artificially. And a dredger helps to extract it.

Sand is an essential material used in many industries.

It is a component of cement mortars and concretes in the production of building materials and the construction of buildings and structures, and a necessary component in road construction.

Sand is the main raw material in the production of glass and ceramics, and is part of molding sands in foundries.

Sand lies at the bottom of bodies of water, from oceans and seas to rivers and streams; it makes up a considerable part of the planet’s land subsoil.

Industrial sand extraction is carried out both by enterprises specializing in this activity and by large construction companies for production needs. Associated extraction of gravel, sand and clay is carried out by many mining enterprises.

Sand extraction methods

Sand is part of the subsoil, so to extract it it is not enough to buy a dump truck and an excavator or dredger; a license for the right to use subsoil is required separately for each object. Otherwise, such activity will be regarded as illegal sand mining.

Only enterprises doing this within the boundaries of a mining or geological land allotment are not required to obtain a license. Owners of household plots and garden plots are allowed to mine gravel, sand and clay on their plots; no license required.

Extraction of washed sand by excavator

Sand is extracted in several ways, for this they use:

Mining enterprises that extract waste rock along with ore often produce crushed stone. The installations used for this (crushing and screening complexes) also separate out the fine fraction – sand.

Gold mining enterprises and artels developing placer deposits of gold-bearing sands simultaneously sell that part of the sand that does not contain the precious metal.

Dry quarry method

Deposit development begins with stripping operations. Trees and shrubs are cut down, and the fertile soil layer (overburden) and waste rock are removed down to the sand layer using bulldozers or front-end loaders. Work in the quarry is carried out according to a design that provides for convenient and safe work. Alternating layers of sand and waste rock are removed by excavators and transported separately.

Quarry method of sand extraction

To extract sand in quarries, two excavation methods are used:

• top excavation, when from the upper platform an excavator equipped with a dragline scoops up material from below, lifts it up and loads it into a vehicle;
• bottom notch; An excavator or loader is located at the bottom level of the quarry and loads the material into a vehicle descending along the ring road.

Hydromechanical method

It is used when there is a reservoir near the field for water intake and discharge. In this case, the license for the right to use subsoil must be supplemented by the execution of a decision on the right to use the water body.

Instead of drilling and blasting operations and excavators, erosion of the rock mass with a high-pressure water jet is used. Water supply for erosion is carried out by a high-pressure pump through a hose connected to the monitor. A hydraulic monitor is a nozzle installed on the frame to which water is supplied. The operator sets the direction of the jet by turning the monitor using the handles.

Water mixed with sand (pulp) is moved by gravity or sand pumps to settling tanks (hydraulic dumps), where it settles. The water is returned to the reservoir, the sand is dehydrated and dried.

This method of excavation is the most productive. During the extraction process, sand is well washed to remove clay inclusions and has increased value.

Extraction of river sand

Dry river beds are most convenient for sand dredging. Loading and transportation are required, as well as finishing operations - washing of silt and foreign matter and dewatering. The need for a license for sand mining remains.

Extraction of river sand

In reservoirs, sand is extracted using a dredger - a specially designed vessel. There are several types of dredgers for extracting sands of varying hardness; The extraction of sand from the bottom of reservoirs is carried out mainly by suction dredgers, and only for the most compacted ones are scoops used. To accumulate the extracted sand, the hold of a dredger or a barge is used.

A suction dredger uses a wear-resistant pump to suck sand from the bottom of a reservoir and load it onto a barge or into its hold. A scoop dredger performs the same function with scoops in harder sands.

After the hold or barge is filled with material, the ship moves to a riverside warehouse and the sand is transferred to storage compartments or vehicles. For reloading from the hold of a dredger or from a barge, portal cranes with grabs or conveyors are used.

On the shore, the sand is washed to remove silt and shells, then dried to the required humidity.

Artificial sand

Sand is a sedimentary rock, as well as an artificial material consisting of rock grains

Natural sand is, in principle, a finite resource, although it will last on the planet for a long time. However, it is possible to replace natural sand with artificial sand.

We are talking about the most massive industrial waste in terms of quantity - wet concentration waste (tailings) and slag from metallurgical production.

Ore enrichment tailings, stored in huge quantities, do not require any processing for use instead of sand; only the same operations are needed as with sand in dry river beds. Flooded storage facilities can be processed by a dredger.

Regarding slags, it is necessary to expand and improve the processes of their processing when released from metallurgical units. Their water and air granulation in molten form will make it possible to obtain particles with a size and hardness that do not differ from the properties of natural sand.

Video: Sand extraction with a submersible pump