For centuries, the sandbars in the Cedar River drifted and flowed with the river current. Then, in the late 1800s, William King thought about how useful that sand would be in making plaster and cement ...

It is extraordinary how few people know anything about sand mining. Up to 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are mined each year to meet soaring demand from construction and land reclamation – ...

Julian Leyland receives funding from UKRI. Sand underpins everything from skyscrapers to smartphones. Sharp sand (as opposed to rounded desert sand) is the key ingredient in concrete, while ...

Sand is the most mined resource worldwide, yet not many are aware of the global environmental crisis stemming from over-extraction. River sand is the main ingredient of concrete — a core resource in ...