OreSand: A circular economy solution to reduce mineral wastes and improve global sand sustainability

At the same time, the most in-demand solid material on Earth is sand, gravel, and crushed stone—with global use approaching 50 billion tonnes per year. After water, sand is the second most exploited natural resource in the world. Demand is likely to continue due to urbanisation, infrastructure development, population growth, and sea-level rise. Yet extraction from rivers and coastal environments is causing widespread ecological degradation. 

Sand is now a major global sustainability issue, especially when sourced from dynamic ecosystems like rivers and marine zones. Our work in 2019 and 2022 with the United Nations Environment Programme highlights the urgency of this challenge.  

A significant share of sand used globally comes from crushed volcanic rock—geologically similar to the ores mined for metals. This fact led us to a simple but powerful question: Is there a synergy here? 

Can we use all this crushed rock—currently disposed of as tailings and contributing to global risk—as a sustainable source of sand? 

Until now, the answer has largely been no. 

Most attempts to reuse, repurpose or valorise tailings have failed for two main reasons:

1. tailings are not fit for purpose and lack the required characteristics of the product; and 
2. private sector end-users, the public and governments are rightly wary of using the mining industry's waste.

We have a solution: OreSand.  

Our response

Our solution is to add mineral processing circuits using commercially available technologies to extract sand as a by-product of metal ore mining that we call OreSand. It is a type of manufactured sand produced as a fit-for-purpose product. Depending on the ore body, an OreSand product might be used as construction sand or industrial sand.  

OreSand is not tailings repurposing. It is a product of the ore, not a product of the waste. As such, OreSand is a genuinely new circular economy solution for tackling tailings challenges. It is a waste prevention and reduction strategy, not an end-of-pipe solution to a linear system (e.g. waste reprocessing strategy).  

The idea is so new that it risks being overlooked before its full potential is understood or adopted at scale. This is why we are building partnerships, knowledge, and decision-support tools to accelerate understanding, trust, and uptake across industries and regions. 

Our work on OreSand is expanding rapidly, with three key focus areas.  

1. Since 2021, we have been collaborating with industry partners to push the boundaries of knowledge—demonstrating the technical feasibility, production potential, and market opportunities for OreSand. 
2. To support this, we are launching the OreSand Knowledge Hub with the support of the Queensland Government.  
3. While our research continues, we are also moving toward commercialisation through a new start-up, OreSand Inc. 

Professor Daniel Franks presents on OreSand and the Circular Economy at the MIT Mining Conference 2024