Places and methods of sand extraction. Modern methods of sand extraction. Dry quarry method

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Sand is one of the most popular building materials. Since people use it in household and construction activities. But, despite the fact that sand literally lies under our feet, the extraction of this mineral in industrial quantities is not an easy task, which requires knowledge of technology and huge financial investments. Therefore, next we will look at how to organize an enterprise for the extraction and production of sand?

How to register sand mining?

In order for sand mining activities to be legal, it is necessary to formalize the quarry and register the enterprise.

It is better to register a company as an LLC using a simplified taxation system. Next, you need to obtain the right to use the quarry and obtain a license.

This license is valid for 5 years, but can then be extended.

In the process of legalizing a business, you may need the following: OKVED codes and regulatory documents:

• 14.21 – “Development of sand and gravel quarries”;
• 14.22 – “Extraction of kaolin and clay.”
• GOST 8736-93 – “Construction sand. THAT";
• GOST 4417-75 – “Quartz sand for welding work.”

Sand mining technology

The choice of sand extraction technology depends on the origin of the building material - quarry, sea or river. Sand extraction can be done using the following methods:

• open,
• closed.

Open pit sand mining

Open pit sand mining is more common. This technology uses scrapers, dump trucks, excavators, aerial ropeways and other equipment. Deposits of non-metallic minerals are usually hidden under layers of soil and clay rocks. They are called overburdens.

Before sand mining begins, scrapers and bulldozers carry out stripping operations. This helps prevent various impurities from getting into the sand. The ratio of the volume of the rock layer to the total volume of minerals is called the stripping ratio. The next operation is to lay trenches for working benches and transport routes. The height of the ledge is determined technical characteristics excavator.

Typically, a single-bucket or multi-bucket excavator is used to extract sand. The bucket volume of this special equipment varies from 0.25 to 15 m 3 .

The sand that is mined by this method is usually yellow-orange in color and is not the best in its properties. Therefore, it is subsequently cleaned, after which the material can be used in the preparation of plaster and masonry mortars, and in the production of bricks.

Technology of sand extraction using a closed (hydromechanized) method

Sand is extracted from the bottom of reservoirs using a hydromechanized method. To develop underwater deposits, dredgers or floating installations are used. They look like a pontoon that is fixed and moved using anchors, cables and piling devices. On this equipment there is a dredger - the most powerful pump. A mechanical ripper and dredger are lowered to the bottom of the reservoir. These devices work together, and loosened sand is sucked into the pipe and then moved in the form of a hydraulic mixture along a floating slurry pipeline, which consists of pipe links and floats.

Finally, the slurry (a mixture of sand and water) is placed in hydraulic dumps, from where the water flows back into the reservoir. Simultaneously with this operation, the mineral is washed from clay and dust impurities.

Business plan for quarrying and sand extraction

Objective of the project– extraction of different-grained quartz sand from a deposit (quarry) and its sale on the territory of the Russian Federation.

It is planned that the development of deposits at the enterprise will be carried out using open-pit methods. Favorable mining and geological conditions allow stripping operations to be carried out simultaneously with mining. The average height of benches for a quartz sand deposit is 5 meters - 1 bench, and the maximum angle of repose is 35-40°.

In quartz sand deposits, water can be cut to a depth of about 8 meters. The water flow is not significant, at which all work can be carried out without pumping. Capital costs for sand mining

Equipment purchase costs

1. Excavator “Hyundai R220LC-9S” (made in Korea).

Specifications:

• power - 194 kW/263 hp;
• bucket volume – 1.43 m3;
• digging depth – 6,440 mm.

The price of the excavator is 5,744,681 rubles.

2. Loader “SEM 639 B”, 1.7 m 3.

• Bucket volume – 3.0 m3;
• Engine power - 162/220 kW/hp;

The price of the loader is 1,468,085 rubles.

3. KrAZ dump truck – 6510.

Specifications:

• Load capacity – 18,000 kg;
• Platform volume – 12 m3.

The price of the car is 2,648,936 rubles.

4. Insulated trailer. Price – 478,723 rubles.

5. Walkie-talkies. Price – 24,468 rubles.

6. Fire shield. Price – 8,511 rubles.

7. 200 liter fuel tanks. Price – 28,723 rubles;

8. Oil tank 200 liters. Price – 9,574 rubles;

9. Diesel heater. Price – 4,255 rubles;

10. Gas stove. Price – 7,447 rubles;

11. Gas cylinder. Price – 3,191 rubles;

12. Drinking tanks. Price – 5,106 rubles;

13. Diesel generator for a trailer. Price – 350,000 rubles;

14. Tables. Price – 4,255 rubles;

15. Chairs. Price – 2,128 rubles;

16. Refrigerator. Price – 5,318 rubles.

Total capital costs: – 10,799,401 rubles.

Costs for renting equipment from Europe for transporting goods (per year):

• Tractor "Volvo" (7 pcs.). Price – 24,592,340 rubles;
• Tipper semi-trailer “Schwarzmuller” (7 pcs.).

Specifications:

• Payload – 33 tons;
• Own weight - 9.2 tons.

Price – 10,876,882 rubles;

Installation of hydraulic units (7 pcs.) – 1,000,851 rubles;

Customs operations – 2,861,150 rubles;

Delivery costs – 1,340,425 rubles.

Total: 40,671,648 rubles.

Payroll costs for production personnel at a mineral deposit

Foreman (1 person) – monthly salary – 31,915 rubles; per year - 382,980 rubles.

Excavator operator (2 people) – monthly salary – 80,064 rubles; per year – 960,768 rubles;

Forklift driver (1 person) – monthly salary – 30,532 rubles; per year – 366,384 rubles.

KrAZ driver (1 person) – monthly salary – 42,553 rubles; per year – 510,636 rubles.

Accountant (1 person) – monthly salary – 20,766 rubles; per year – 249,192 rubles.

Watchman (2 people) – monthly salary – 34,021 rubles; per year – 408,252 rubles.

Cook (1 person) – monthly salary – 20,766 rubles; per year – 249,192 rubles.

Total fund wages for the year will be 3,127,404 rubles

Quarry development costs

Fire extinguisher (3 pcs.) – 4,468 rubles;

Refilling a gas cylinder – 5,957 rubles;

Construction helmets (3 pcs.) – 2,553 rubles;

Golitsy (10 pairs) – 1064 rubles;

Raincoats (3 pcs.) – 2,872 rubles;

Construction shovels (5 pcs.) – 1,277 rubles;

Lantern for a trailer (1 piece) – 2,128 rubles;

Overalls and shoes for 5 people – 53,191 rubles;

Ax (2 pcs.) – 1,702 rubles;

Hammers (3 pcs.) – 702 rubles;

Sledgehammer (3 pcs.) – 3,191 rubles;

Tongs (3 pcs.) – 638 rubles;

Screwdrivers (3 sets) – 2,128 rubles.

Wrenches (3 sets) – 15,957 rubles;

Pliers (5 pcs.) – 532 rubles;

Carrying bags (3 pcs.) – 511 rubles;

Dog (2 pcs.) – 6,383 rubles.

Total: 105,254 rubles.

Calculation of the cost of food for workers at the quarry

The cost of 1 lunch is 117 rubles;

Number of workers – 9 workers;

The cost of lunch per month is 22,117 rubles;

The cost of lunch per year is 265,404 rubles.

Other costs

The cost of feeding 2 dogs per year will be 61,277 rubles.

Rental costs (per year): house in a village near a quarry – 76,595 rubles;

Vacuum truck – 12,766 rubles;

Total: 89,361 rubles.

Advertising costs

• Billboard rental (3 pcs.) – 38,298 rubles;
• Advertising in a newspaper – 5,106 rubles;
• Radio advertising – 10,638 rubles;

Total costs per month – 54,042 rubles;

Total per year – 108,084 rubles.

Indirect costs

• Diesel fuel consumption for maintaining a fleet of special equipment is 17 liters per year. The average cost of diesel fuel is 30 rubles/liter;
• Consumption lubricants for the operation of auxiliary equipment - 3 thousand liters per year. The price of lubricants is 22 rubles/liter;
• Equipment utilization rate – 0.2;

Total costs for fuels and lubricants will be: (17,000 * 30 + 3000 * 22) * 0.2 = 115,200 rubles.

Costs of tax deduction for sand extraction

For the period from January 1 to December 31, 2013, the rate for sand extraction is 5.5%.

The total cost of paying the tax will be: 0.055 * 77,750,000 = 4,276,250 rubles.

The total cost of sand extraction is: 48,819,882 rubles.

Revenue

Annual volumes of quartz sand production:

• Fine-grained sand – 60,000 m3;
• Medium-grained sand – 70,000 m3;
• Coarse sand (screenings) – 80,000 m 3 ;
• High-fine sand – 45,000 m3.

Revenue for the year will be:

• From the sale of fine-grained sand (Price – 150 rubles/m3): 60,000 * 150 = 9,000,000 rubles.
• From the sale of medium-grained sand (Price - 300 rubles/m 3): 70,000 * 300 = 21,000,000 rubles;

Sand– one of the most common building materials. Sand mining is carried out in large volumes. In the Moscow region alone, it is produced in a volume of more than 5.5 million m3, taking into account the PGM. It is used in road works, construction of structures, production of reinforced concrete products and landscaping.
Sand mining organizations (companies) in the Moscow region offer wide range species of this material throughout the region. Thanks to this, any construction task can be accomplished.

What methods are used to extract sand?

In the Moscow region, the following extraction methods are used:

• open-pit sand mining. Quarry development is initiated using special equipment. Various technologies provide the opportunity to obtain ordinary quarry, alluvial and seeded sand. All these types are used in construction and other areas of human activity;
• extraction of river sand. This procedure allows you to obtain a material with a minimum impurity content. It is considered very pure. To accomplish this task, sand dredgers are used. They are immersed in water from special floating platforms, after which they begin to suck up material from the bottom. After this, the sand is transported to the place of drying and storage through communications laid in the ground.

Quarry sand

Sand mining in a quarry provides the opportunity to obtain one of the cheapest varieties of this material. Due to the high content of impurities (clay, plant residues and other biocomponents), it is used mainly in rough work.
To improve the quality of the extracted material, a sand quarry can be equipped with devices for washing and seeding. This material is more expensive, but it is cleaner and has a wide range of applications.
Shine cleaning involves passing through several sieves with different mesh sizes. As a result, most of the impurities are eliminated.
Alluvial technology involves processing large volumes of water. During the work, clay and other impurities are washed away. This process is similar to that which takes place at the bottom of rivers. But due to faster exposure, sand grains retain sharp edges and better adhesive properties.
Washed sand has the widest range of applications, but its cost will be higher, since the development and extraction of sand requires significant financial costs.

river sand

Reservoir beds are one of the best sources of sand. The grains of sand at the bottom are thoroughly treated with water. Most often, sand gets there from mountain peaks, where rocks are eroded. Since the route is quite long, the grains of sand roll around and become more rounded.
Such material is in demand during finishing finishing works. It is used in the process of organizing sandboxes and landscaping the territory.
Most often, construction sand is mined from reservoirs. If necessary, it is divided into separate factions to accomplish different tasks.

Careers of the Moscow region

Sand mining in the Moscow region is carried out in industrial scale. At the moment, there are more than 110 quarries (the figure is given without taking into account water deposits). In 2009, reserves of this material together with ASG were estimated at 2.1 billion m3. The main production (more than 95%) is carried out by the 10 largest companies. The rest comes from small organizations.
Most construction sand production sites are concentrated in the Voskresensky, Kashira, Naro-Fominsk and Ramensky districts. More than 50% of all proven reserves of PGM are located in the Ruza region.
On the territory of the Moscow Region, construction, river, hydraulic, as well as natural sand of classes I and II are mined. This is quite enough to meet the needs of the region. A significant part of the material is sold outside its borders.

Licensing

For the official extraction of quarry sand, a license is required. The process of obtaining this document takes place in several stages. First of all, you need to prove your organization’s ability to implement this task:

• preliminary estimate of subsoil reserves;
• obtain a drilling permit;
• prepare the material and raw material base and documents for participation in the auction to be won.

After this, sand mining sites are put on balance. A license is issued.

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, river banks 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, as opposed to grains of sand, in last years does not decrease, but grows 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 System Integration and sustainable development at Michigan State University. - This imbalance will have very dire consequences both for the environment and for 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 sphere 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, staff of the UN Program for environment(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, which 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 an employee local government Chea Manitha tourism, catches of fish, crabs and lobsters in the river, from which sand was taken for several months, 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 export embargo individual species sand, and 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). Insatiable “sand appetite” - main reason not the most better relationship Singapore with neighboring countries, and above all with Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur often threatens to cut off Singaporeans from drinking water, which they, like 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, we're talking about and about the ocean surrounding them 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 a necessary building material used in the process of performing all construction work. Sand of natural origin is mined in quarries. These are either sandy or sand-granite mining sites.

According to the conditions of the deposits, sand deposits, like other minerals, are divided into the following types of quarries:

Kosogorny.

Flat.

A quarry is considered to be sloped, which is located on the slope of a hill. They are almost always located high in the mountains and are located above transport junctions and the surrounding area. These quarries are always dry type.

In flat-type quarries, sand deposits are located below the earth's surface or, in some situations, even below the groundwater level. These quarries can be of both dry and watered types.

Depending on the method of sand development, quarries are either drained using drains, drains, or watered for the subsequent extraction of this building material.

In water-type quarries, this material is extracted from river beds, lakes and other types of reservoirs.

Sand mining carried out in two development methods:

Open.

Underwater.

Open pit mining is the most common. For such mining, excavators, scrapers, dump trucks, overhead cable cars and other mechanisms are used.

In water-type quarries, excavators are used - dredgers, draglines, and rope scrapers.

Sand extraction occurs through explosions. Such work makes it possible to separate rock from rock masses by grinding and crushing to the required size.

Sand deposits are often hidden under a layer of soil, clay and other rocks. These layers are called overburden. The ratio of the layer volume to the volume of minerals is the stripping ratio.

Stripping operations are carried out in order to avoid additional contamination of sand with various impurities.

In addition to the above methods of sand development, there is the most productive extraction method - hydromechanical.

This method is used not only when extracting sand from the bottoms of rivers or other types of reservoirs, but also in flooded plain-type quarries.

Sand deposits that are located above the water level can be developed using hydraulic monitors. They are tubular barrels with a conical profile and a thin nozzle at the end. Liquid supplied pumping stations from nearby reservoirs, is thrown out through a hydraulic monitor in a very dense stream with significant pressure.

Downhole hydraulic monitors erode sand deposits. The pulp thus formed flows by gravity into hydraulic dumps, if the required slope is provided. In other situations, sand is transported by dredgers through special pipelines.

Such mechanisms, which are used in mining, are capable of crushing even very hard rocks with their water jet. Very little pressure is enough to develop sand.

No one can talk about sand mining better than Fei Wei Dong, a brilliant businessman from Shanghai who earns £180,000 a year trading in the most humble commodity: sand. Fei often works in the fishing village of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake and home to millions of migratory birds, some of which are endangered. The village is little more than a tiny collection of ramshackle houses and battered wooden docks - it is hidden by huge ships anchored just offshore, excavators, long barges, clunky metal flatboats with cranes working the mining operation. Fei regularly comes here to buy raw sand extracted from the lower part of Poyang. He ships the sand 300 miles down the Yangtze River and resells the sand to construction workers in booming Shanghai who need the sand to make concrete.

Demand for sand is stable. The global boom in urbanization is gobbling up colossal quantities of sand, a key ingredient in concrete and asphalt. Shanghai, the financial center of China. Since 2000, Shanghai has grown and its population increased by 7 million people to 23 million. In the last decade, Shanghai has seen the construction of taller buildings than all of New York City, as well as numerous roads and other infrastructure. “My sand helped build Shanghai Pudong Airport,” boasts Fei.
Used more cement in the last few years than the US did during the entire 20th century. Hundreds of units and ships mine sand from the lake, with the largest one being able to extract up to 10,000 tons of sand per hour. According to a recent study, 236,000,000 cubic meters of sand are removed from the lake annually. This makes Poyang the largest sand mine on the planet, much larger than the largest sand mines in the United States. "I couldn't believe it when I did the calculations," says David Shankman, a geologist at the University of Alabama.
All this dredging, according to researchers, is a key reason why the lake's water level has dropped sharply in recent years. So much sand was scooped up and hauled away, Shenkman says, that the lake's outflow channel suddenly deepened and widened, nearly doubling the amount of water flowing into the Yangtze. Lower water levels lead to shallowing of the lake and swamping of the surrounding area. This can be detrimental to area residents, both animals and people.

Construction problem

Catastrophic damage

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