Ore-sand outcomes
Near term outcomes
For Mining Companies
- Tailings repurposing barriers avoided. Instead of facing regulatory hurdles by repurposing industrial waste, our partners become licensed quarries producing clean, verifiable products.
- Improved process optimisation. Ore-sand is a type of manufactured sand resulting from the mining and processing of ores; its co-production implies the optimisation of these processes and the addition of processing stages to achieve the required specifications of sand.
- Reduced tailings volume and increased potential for reduced tailings liability easing storage space constraints and costs, as well as regulatory burdens.
- Improved ESG performance through visible circular economy action. A key advantage of ore-sand is that the associated carbon emissions from crushing and grinding are effectively zero, as these processes are being undertaken to produce the primary metal commodity.
- New revenue streams from a co-product that requires no additional processing energy.
- Reduced risks and enhanced social licence by aligning operations with community and environmental goals. The sites presenting the greatest tailings risks—typically those situated near populated areas—are also those closest to sand markets, making ore-sand production particularly beneficial in these locations.
- Positioning as innovators and leaders in circular mining and responsible resource use.
For end users of sand
- Access to a new source of sustainable, locally available sand, potentially improving cost and supply certainty while reducing dependence on fragile or controversial sources.
- Potentially lower material costs, particularly in regions facing natural sand scarcity or high transport prices.
- Access to low-carbon materials, aiding in compliance with green building and carbon reporting requirements.
For Policy and Public Sector
- Aligned progress toward SDGs, climate and biodiversity targets via material circularity and emissions reductions.
- Reduced environmental impacts from sand mining, including less pressure on vulnerable rivers and coastlines and related water, food and human security.
- Improved supply chain resilience for the building and maintenance of large public infrastructure projects, including energy infrastructure, transport networks and climate resilience investments.
- Reduced environmental and safety risks from tailings dams, particularly in densely populated zones.
- Potential for job creation and skill-building opportunities through ore-sand logistics, processing, and use in local construction.
Expected medium-term outcomes
As we gather momentum in addressing the two interconnected challenges of unsustainable natural sand demand and mine tailings production through ore-sand as a circular economy strategy, we expect this programme to see outcomes like:
- Contributions to fundamental knowledge of methods and assessment procedures for testing the viability of sand alternatives.
- Contributions to cutting edge-applied knowledge for getting ore-sand projects off the ground, with defined innovation adoption pathways defined and evidenced for different end-use sectors.
- New supply network archetypes established. Ore-sand production and distribution are embedded in functioning supply networks that link mining operations directly with end-use sectors, such as construction and infrastructure. These serve as replicable models of circular industrial exchange.
- Policy and regulatory systems begin to adapt. Regulatory and standards bodies in priority markets initiate or pilot pathways to recognise co-produced sand products, informed by technical data, use-case demonstrations, and collaborative ecosystem engagement.
- Ore-sand becomes a flagship example of circularity in mineral value chains. The mining–construction interface is increasingly seen as a strategic site for systems-level innovation, resource efficiency, and decarbonisation.
- Cross-sector alliances (mining, construction, finance, research, policy) are operational and actively shaping enabling conditions for ore-sand adoption—co-developing standards, business models, and shared investment strategies.
- Ore-sand is integrated into mining ecosystems sand supply chains in geographies beyond our core focus regions today of Australia and South America (e.g. Europe, India, West Africa).