Silica sand is a versatile raw material which has to be processed in an appropriate way to satisfy the specifications of end users.
For the production of all kinds of glass and glass-related products, silica based chemical compounds, moulds in foundries, filter media, frac sand etc. natural raw material is needed which is mined from different kinds of deposits.
This includes sedimentary soft ground deposits, sandstone and quartzite deposits; and all of them require their own excavation and exploitation methods that have to be evaluated carefully at the very beginning of a project both from a technical and an economical point of view.
Before the actual mine planning, the geological and mineralogical investigations have to be executed to get all relevant data, eg. reserves, mineral variations, mineral intergrowth, liberation characteristics, and so on. Trying to save costs here, for instance by reducing the core drill programme, may result in a...