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

The challenge

Mine waste is the largest solid waste stream produced by humans. Each year, the world generates around 13 billion tonnes of tailings—that’s about 1.6 tonnes per person annually. Catastrophic failures of tailings storage facilities have led to severe environmental, social, and economic consequences. In response, new policies and standards are beginning to drive innovation in tailings management.

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

Scaled OreSand co-production generates a viable alternative to natural sand, while reducing and avoiding mine waste, improving resource efficiency and creating sustainable economic opportunities. 

We view an ore body much like a butcher views a whole side of meat. Today, mining companies extract only the ‘fillet’—the high-value metals—while the rest is discarded. It’s time to start making sausages. 
 
Embracing a nose to tail approach in mining and mineral processing would mark a transformative shift in the sector. OreSand represents this shift: a co-produced material, not waste, that turns overlooked components of the ore body into a valuable, sustainable resource. 
 
A core assumption of our program is that scaling OreSand production must be matched by a demand-side transformation—a shift in how industries source sand. This change requires more than a new product; it calls for a structural rethinking of supply chains and material values. 
 
That’s why our strategy is grounded in systems change—at the scale of industries and regions. It’s multilevel, locally grounded yet globally scalable, and driven by partnerships. We target root causes, reshape supply networks, and work to fundamentally transform how sand is produced, perceived, and consumed.  

Program objectives

Core team

Professor Daniel Franks

Dr Juliana Segura-Salazar
View Juliana Segura-Salazar's research profile

Dr Louise Gallagher
View Louise Gallagher's research profile

Dr Lulit Habte Ekubastion
View Lulit Habte Ekubatsion's research profile

Research collaborators

Bioantika, Research and development (mineral processing innovation for OreSand production) 
 
Dr Christian Antonio, Research and development (mineral separation) 
 
Professor Ian Mackenzie, Research and development (economic/business case) 
 
Dr Juan Soto, Research and development (economic/business case) 
 
Dr Longxiang Zhao, Research and development (economic/business case) 
 
Dr Kamila Svobodova, Research and development (economic/business case) 
 
Madhu Ardhanari, Research and development (OreSand in sustainability transitions and transformations)
 
Dr Mehdi Serati, Research and development (geotechnical engineering; shotcrete applications) 
 
Professor Rebecca Gravina, Research and development (civil construction, structural engineering) 
 
Associate Professor Vinh Dao, Research and development (civil engineering; concreting applications) 
 
Dr Hannah Seligmann (University of Southern Queensland), Research and development (municipal services and public work engineering, geotechnical engineering)  
 

Commercialisation advisors  

Leigh Staines, UQ Commercialisation support; business innovation 

Kai Eberspaecher, Commercialisation and business strategy support  
 

Industry partners 

  • Vale International  
  • Newmont 
  • Aurecon Group 

Government partners  

  • Queensland Government, Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing, and Regional and Rural Development 
  • Australian Government, Department of Education 
  • Brisbane City Council 

Other research institutes 

  • The QUEX Institute, a partnership between The University of Queensland (UQ) and the University of Exeter. 
  • Geological Survey of Finland (GTK)  
  • The University of Geneva – UNEP/GRID-Geneva 
  • Mining Business School, Catholic University of the North 
     

OreSand offers a change in perspective that that opens up many opportunities for impact.  

Our industry partnerships focus on deep and wide scaling, supporting data-driven support and development of real-world demonstrations on how key barriers and drivers of market adoption for OreSand can be addressed  

Our OreSand Knowledge Hub produces open, actionable knowledge and enabling access for all stakeholders. It empowers industry, policymakers, and communities to adopt sustainable sand alternatives, fostering inclusive, circular innovation. 

Our commercialisation strategy actions our know-how to build circular supply chains that scale materials efficiency, emissions reductions, resilient infrastructure, human security and biodiversity outcomes.

See the outcomes of the OreSand program

Impact   

Our impact goal 

OreSand tackles unsustainable sand extraction and tailings risk by enabling 2 million Metric tons of materials of waste avoided annually in the mining sector. Large volume reduction in tailings generation by large-scale mining companies to reduce the risks of waste management, the impact on the environment and communities, and offset large volumes of natural sand extraction from dynamic ecosystems.  

How does OreSand contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals?  

Industry partnerships  

Our industry partnerships help us find the edge of what we know and go further, all the while demonstrating the technical validity, production potential and market adoption possibilities to the world. Since 2021, we have been working with partners such as Vale and Newmont/Newcrest to demonstrate the potential for OreSand.

Vale's Brucutu mine has now produced in the vicinity of 1.5MT of OreSand for road sub-base, brick making and a fine aggregate for blending into concrete. At Newmont's Cadia mine, we have demonstrated for the first time the possibility of producing a clean OreSand product from sulphidic ore bodies for use in concrete and shotcrete. If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch.  

Dr Juliana Segura-Salazar: j.segurasalazar@uq.edu.au  
Dr Louise Gallagher: louise.gallagher@uq.edu.au 
 

Featured projects

 

OreSand Knowledge Hub  

In 2025, The University of Queensland, with support from the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing, and Regional and Rural Development, launched the OreSand Knowledge Hub—a platform dedicated to rethinking mining and mineral processing by-products, with a focus on OreSand as a sustainable alternative to natural sand. 

The Hub aims to foster an innovation ecosystem for OreSand by providing knowledge, technical advice, and decision support tools. Developed by UQ’s Sustainable Minerals Institute, it positions Queensland as a global leader in advancing circular economy practices within the mining sector. 

The initiative seeks to build expertise in OreSand project development and support others in launching projects, enabling the broader uptake of OreSand as a circular economy solution. By making insight, structured knowledge, and ecosystem support accessible, the Hub empowers actors driving positive change in mineral and materials economies. 

Through the Hub, we are also developing decision support tools to help companies assess their OreSand potential. 

Project resources and media 


 

 

Contact us

Get in touch to learn more about our project.

Dr Louise Gallagher

Senior Research Fellow
Global Centre for Mineral Security

Dr Juliana Segura-Salazar

Research Fellow
Global Centre for Mineral Security and
Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre 

 

 

The program Ore-sand: A circular economy solution to reduce mineral wastes and improve global sand sustainability sits under the Global Centre for Mineral Security (GCMS)

GCMS homepage