What are the prospects of processing cobblestones into manufactured sand?
1.The more economically developed a country is, the stricter the bans and restrictions on river sand mining become. Manufactured sand is the future trend and has already become the norm in developed countries.
South Korea: Phased out river sand mining gradually around 30 years ago.
Spain: In line with the rest of Europe, river sand mining is prohibited except for flood control or repairing storm damage to beaches; however, mining in dry riverbeds is permitted.
Europe: Alev Somer from the European Aggregates Association pointed out that although Europe accounts for 38% of the world’s sand and gravel processing capacity, very little of it comes from river mining except for flood control purposes. Only in the Netherlands, where onshore resources are scarce, is large-scale river mining allowed for river navigation and flood control. Under the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy, there is growing public attention to river water quality, with a goal to restore 25,000 kilometers of free-flowing rivers.
United Kingdom: River sand mining is no longer permitted, except for dredging to increase river flow and prevent flooding.
At present, most sand comes from river dredging, which will remain the mainstream way of obtaining sand from rivers in the future. However, with social progress and growing investment in infrastructure construction, sand from river dredging alone cannot meet the rising demand. Therefore, the future sand market will rely on the development of the manufactured sand industry, and processing cobblestones into sand will have great potential.
2.Domestic Market Environment
In recent years, China has attached greater importance to environmental protection and continuously strengthened environmental governance. Illegal private sand mining is now strictly prohibited. Legally supplied sand in the domestic market has two sources:
First, sand mined in approved areas, during permitted periods, and within regulated quotas;
Second, sand from river and waterway dredging, determined by the actual conditions of rivers, waterways and reservoirs as a supplementary source.
It can be seen that domestic sand mining is under strict regulation, and the supply of natural sand is insufficient to support the rapid development of infrastructure. Thus, the manufactured sand industry, including cobblestone sand production, will become the main supplier in the sand and gravel market, while natural sand will only serve as a supplement.
