Sand, stone
and gravel - we find them everywhere, on beaches on building sites in rivers
and streams but what you may not have considered is just how many uses these
things have! Have you ever stopped and thought about the role sand, stone and
gravel play in your life? Probably not.
In this
blog, we take you on a journey and discover just how versatile these incredible
elements are.
Sand
As we
mentioned, sand and gravel deposits can be found on beaches or in rivers and
streams. These are mostly quartz (silicon dioxide, SiO2) grains. Weathering of
rocks such as granite forms these quartz grains. In the process of weathering,
the softer, weaker minerals in granite (such as feldspar) are weathered down.
The higher the resistance of the quartz eventually is ground down in size, but
does not break down chemically. Over time, these quartz grains accumulate in
rivers, streams, deltas and on beaches too.
Uses For Mining
Industrial
sand mining methods are reliant on this deposit type. These deposits are often
mined using front-end loaders, scrapers, or bulldozers. Material is dug up,
excavated, and pushed to a central point. The ore-grade material is then loaded
onto a truck using standard earth-moving equipment, where it then reports to a
stockpile or a processing plant.
A hydraulic
dredge uses a suction pipe to excavate sand, this is then pumped through a
pipeline to surge piles or directly through to a processing plant. The channel
or tailings deposit is excavated and placed in a stockpile. The material will
be then loaded into a haul truck for transportation over to a processing plant.
Further Uses
Sand and
gravel are used for road construction, for mixing with asphalt, as construction
fill, and in the production of construction materials such as concrete blocks,
bricks, and pipes. It is also used for creating roofing shingles, used on icy
roads during the winter months, for railroad ballast, and water filtration.
Industrial sand and gravel is used for creating glass, as foundry sand and as
abrasive sand.
For various
applications, it is the silica content (quartz) of sand that makes it so
worthwhile. The silica itself is required to make products such as glass. As
well as this, the physical properties of sand, particularly its abrasive
property, make it useful for traction on icy roads and railroads as well as
sandblasting.
Sand can
also be found in quarries, sandpits, beaches, and riverbeds. There are a few
types of sand, each with their specific uses, for example, river sand, masonry
sand, construction sand, and granite sand.
These
sands are often used for:
● Concrete
● Mortar
● Moulding
● Glass
● Sand
lime brick
● Building
and paving sands
● Drainage
● Filters
● Fertilizer
fillers
● Highways
and road traction
● Golf
courses
● Beaches
● Volleyball
courts
● Sandbags
● Arena
flooring
● Land
reclamation
● Fracking
● Sandboxes
in playgrounds
Uses of stone
When you
think of stone, the chances are that the first thing that comes to mind is its
use in famous buildings, however very few people probably even realise that
stone in some form enters our lives probably a hundred times even before we
leave the house every single day.
The main
groups of uses can be identified:
Building
and decorative stone structures
Limestone is
used for its resistance to weather or its beautiful appeal, stone walls and
decorative purposes on buildings, walls and paving slabs.
Aggregates
The stone
used for its robust physical properties, for example, crushed and sorted into
various sizes for its uses in concrete, coated with bitumen to make asphalt or
used 'dry' as bulk fills in construction. It is mostly used in roads, concrete
and building products.
Industrial
purposes
Limestone is
often used for its chemical (mainly alkaline) properties as calcium carbonate
(CaCO3) in the farming and manufacturing industry. Lime burning (calcining) –
limestone when heated to a higher temperature breaks down into lime (calcium
oxide) and carbon dioxide gas. It can then be used as a more powerful alkali
than limestone, or used as a cement and combined with sand, to make mortar, or
as a soil improver in agriculture.
Cement
If limestone
(or its other variation of chalk) is mixed with clay or sandstone before
firing, it can produce a type of cement which when mixed with aggregates makes
concrete. Stone from quarries has been employed in all of these ways. Apart
from road usage, substantial amounts are mixed (coarse gravel sized stone with
smaller stone particles or sand) with cement and water to create concrete. This
may be carried out at the quarry or materials supplied to truck-mixers (this is
then mixed en route) or to remote plants.
A crucial local 'downstream' industry is that
of concrete products (blocks, pipes, kerbs, pavers and so forth. Not only do
these products give added value to the raw aggregate, they frequently make use
of 'fines' which are a by-product of general aggregate processing, and without
this market would frequently have to be dumped.
Gravel
uses
Gravel is a
huge business, meeting the many demands for expanding cities and increasing
building work. From residential, commercial, and municipal construction to
paving roads and residential driveways, gravel does play a major role in our
lives.
Sand and
gravel aggregates have many uses, including their use in mixing cement
materials such as concrete, mortar, and plaster. Many construction projects
wouldn’t be completed without the use of these aggregates. And our homes and
cities wouldn’t function or work what they are today without these crucial
resources.
These
aggregates are also crucial in the natural world. They form the foundation for
bodies of water, such as lakes and riverbeds. And countless species of wildlife
depend on these aggregates for their specific habitats. And while lots of us
take these seemingly mundane resources for granted, they are some of the major
building blocks of our modern life. With so many uses, they deserve some
acknowledgement and credit for their versatility and importance to our everyday
lives.
The most
popular use of gravel on its own is to create gravel roads and driveways. Even
to this very day, gravel roads are more widely made than paved roads,
particularly in rural towns. Gravel is also a handy and decorative landscaping
material. It offers excellent drainage in garden beds and is a convenient
alternative to mulch as well as patio pavers.
W M Thompson & Sons - For The Best Quarry
Products And Services
Here at
W M Thompson & Sons, our natural quarry products are suitable for
an enormous range of projects – from small-scale infrastructure jobs to the
construction of flood defences, road surfacing and driveway laying. We can even
provide graded sand for use in sports and equestrian applications. At William
Thompson & Son, we are committed to investing in technology, providing us
with the ability to extract and produce the finest natural materials in the
most environmentally friendly manner. To find out more about the services and
products we offer, please feel free to
get in touch
with us today or browse our website for further
information - we would be happy to help and delighted to hear from you.
