Sand and silicates are essential building blocks of modern life. They are used to build roads and housing and drive economic and industrial development across regions through vital inputs and goods delivery. Ceramics, glass, paint and concrete are all made of sand and silicates, serving as critical inputs to strategic sectors like electronics and renewable energy. Global demand for sand and silicates is only increasing and feeds material production in nearly every country in the world. Finite resources and production that exceeds replenishment rates, however, are unsustainable and pose significant economic resilience challenges.
Due Diligence for Responsible Sand and Silicate Supply Chains
Abstract
Sand and silicates are the most widely used solid materials in the world and the second largest extracted resource after water. They serve as building blocks for economies and societies, providing the materials necessary for infrastructure, housing and a wide range of sector-specific products and services. Sand and silicates are vital for local, regional and international sustainable development in producing and consuming countries alike (Franks, 2020[1]). They support economic and energy security by serving as critical inputs for energy technologies (both renewable energy and for oil and gas fracking), electronics, and the automotive industry. Many industrial processes depend on sand and silicates, including metal processing and refining. Some materials such as clay and silica sand are often overlooked when they enter global supply chains as inputs in the form of glass, cement, plastic or paint. Silicon, on the other hand, derived from high-purity quartz - a member of the sand and silicates family - has received more attention as a high-profile material because of its geographical concentration at both mineral production and intermediary processing stages (see Section 2) and its criticality to the production of semiconductors and solar panels.
Defining sand and silicates
Sand and silicates refer to a diverse group of mineral materials containing silicon and oxygen. This group includes sand, gravel, stone, clays, quartz, and other silicate minerals that play indispensable roles in our societies and economies. Sand and silicates are abundant, stable, strong, and versatile materials with properties that make them useful for many applications.1 Defining sand and silicates means considering key characteristics like form, grain size, shape, mineralogy and end uses. Taking account of the breadth and diversity of sand and silicates, this report classifies sand and silicates using the categories shown in Figure 1.1. Given the range of classifications and these commodities often consisting of aggregates of minerals, this report uses the term 'materials' rather than 'minerals'. The distinguish themselves from sand ores – such as zirconium and titanium – which are metal ores extracted from sand and resulting in the production of sand produced as a by-product.
Extraordinary consumption volumes
Extraction and use of sand and silicates have reached extraordinary volumes and take place in diverse natural environments within the earth’s crust - from terrestrial lands and mountains to freshwater lakes, rivers and the sea. Current estimates place global consumption at around 50 billion tonnes annually (UNEP, 2019[2]; 2022[3]) and demand is estimated to reach 86 billion tonnes in 2060 (OECD, 2019[4]). Sand and gravel used for cement, concrete and aggregates, account for most of this vast volume (see Figure 1.2). This compares to the combined annual consumption of high-value minerals such as gold, cobalt, lithium, tin, tantalum, and tungsten, which collectively amount to approximately 740 000 tonnes, or about 70 000 times less than global annual sand and silicate consumption. The value of these minerals is driven by the gold sector with a mined production of 3600 tonnes worth around USD 380 billion in 2024 (World Gold Council, 2025[5]). In comparison, the sand and silicate market may amount to USD 600 billion annually,2 making the sector just over 1.5 times larger than the value of annual gold production while being more than a million times larger in volume.
Sources: USGS (2023[6]), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023: GOLD, https://doi.org/10.3133/mcs2023; World Gold Council (2024[7]), Historical demand and supply, https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-demand-by-country; Statstica (2024[8]) Major countries in industrial sand and gravel production worldwide in 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/376665/industrial-sand-and-gravel-production-by-top-countries/; Cobalt Institute (2021[9]), State of the Cobalt Market, https://www.cobaltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Cobalt-Institute-State-of-the-Cobalt-Market-Report_2020.pdf; USGS (2024[10]), Cobalt Statistics and Information, https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/cobalt-statistics-and-information; USGS (2022[11]), Mineral Commodities Summaries 2022: LITHIUM, https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2022/mcs2022-lithium.pdf; USGS (2024[12]), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 TIN, https//pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-tin.pd; USGS (2020[13]), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2020 TANTALUM, https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2020/mcs2020-tantalum.pdf; USGS (2022[14]), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 TUNGSTEN, https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2022/mcs2022-tungsten.pdf; Statistica (2024[15]), Distribution of tungsten consumption worldwide between 2012 and 2016, by country, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1009699/tungsten-consumption-distribution-worldwide-by-country/; UNEP (2019[2]), Sand and sustainability: Finding new solutions for environmental governance of global sand resources, https://unepgrid.ch/storage/app/media/documents/Sand_and_sustainability_UNEP_2019.pdf; UNEP (2022[3]), Sand and sustainability: 10 strategic recommendations to avert a crisis, https://www.unep.org/resources/report/sand-and-sustainability-10-strategic-recommendations-avert-crisis; USGS (2023[16]), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023 SAND AND GRAVEL (INDUSTRIAL), https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-sand-industrial.pdf; USGS (2024[17]), Minerals Commodity Summaries 2024: CLAYS, https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-clays.pdf; USGS (2024[18]), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 QUARTZ (HIGH-PURITY AND INDUSTRIAL CULTURED CRYSTAL), https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-quartz.pdf; USGS (2024[19]), FELDSPAR AND NEPHELINE SYENITE, https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-feldspar.pdf; Research and Markets (2024[20]), Natural Stone Global Market Report 2024, https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5766803/natural-stone-global-market-report.
Growing global demand is spurring production across the world
Sand and silicates are extracted in nearly every country in the world. Urbanisation, infrastructure development, large-scale industrial demand, and a growing focus on renewable energy technologies are driving demand for sand and silicate production. From construction and transport infrastructure on the African continent (AfCFTA, n.d.[21]) to ongoing construction booms in the Middle East - especially in the Gulf states (Oxford Economics, 2023[22]) to rapidly developing markets in Latin America or rising demand for high-purity silica sand for the fracking industry in the United States – growing demand is expected to spur global sand and silicate production which is estimated to double from 2020 levels by 2060 (Zhong et al., 2022[23]).
Reconciling high demand and finite resources
While natural reproduction processes and manufacturing can sustain long-term supply, not all sand and silicates can be easily or affordably accessed (Padmalal and Maya, 2014[24]). Localized shortages of sand and aggregates for construction have emerged in contexts of massive land reclamation, construction and beach nourishment in Africa, Asia and North America (Tychsen, Batista and Carvalho, 2022[25]; Ren et al., 2022[26]; IADC, 2023[27]; Franke, 2014[28]; UNDP, 2018[29]). Concerns regarding the availability of industrial sands and high-purity silica with certain characteristics in proximity to end users, also regularly arise (Blervacq, 2022[30]). The drivers of such shortages include limited sand deposits, extraction occurring at an unsustainable pace exceeding geological availability or natural replenishment rates, high fuel and energy costs and supply chain disruptions in the context of conflict. While being traded at significantly lower values compared to high-value minerals such as gold, sand and silicate prices have soared in some locations, including in OECD countries, in response to supply constraints (Schwing, 2024[31]; IADC, 2023[27]) progressively eroding the perception that these materials are abundant and inexpensive resources. High levels of concentration in the market of high-purity quartz (HPQ) and silicon metal, materials critical for global semiconductor manufacturing, provides only one example of how trade dependencies can emerge and amplify vulnerabilities of global sand and silicate supply chains (see Section 2).
← 1. Silica is a mineral made up of oxygen and silicon, two of the most common elements on the planet (IMA Europe, 2018[160]).
← 2. The market value of sand and silicates was estimated by means of an extrapolation of the annual value of sand and gravel production in 2023 in the United States to reflect annual global sand and gravel consumption of 50 billion tonnes. The resulting estimate also reflects other sand and silicate materials for which annual value estimates were available.