Essay On Sand Mining

Pereira (2012) researched on sand mining in India by studying three villages in Maharashtra and realised that as global demand for sand is exploding and rising rapidly, the sources of sand and gravel such as riverbeds, beaches, creeks are being mined faster than nature can replenish. This creates a highly skewed supply-demand situation. Pereira noted that India has the third largest construction business in the world after USA and China, so sand and gravel are required in large quantities. Mining is done both legally and illegally. The country did not have a regulatory and monitoring framework for excavation of sand sustainably which increased the illegal mining rampantly. There had never been much control because people thought that the resources are low value minor minerals and inexhaustible. This has led the Mumbai High

The research concentrated on river sand mining which has adverse impacts on the biota and the habitats. Steps in mining sand and gravel in South Africa were given as firstly, finding a mining location and removal of vegetation and topsoil using excavating equipment. Second step involves extraction using dredge machine to suck the resources. Thirdly, a separator is used to separate sand and gravel from large rock particles, while fine sand is removed from coarse sand. At the end, usually excess sand is returned to the pit using a discharge pipe. (Hill and Kleynhans, 1999). Methods of mining were noted as dry pit mining done when sand is extracted from dry streambed. Wet pit mining involves removing sand and gravel below water table using hydraulic machines while bar skimming is when top layer of soil is removed (Hill and Kleynhans,