Extraction

4 Extraction of sand can be as simple as scooping it up from the riverbank with a

rubber-tired vehicle called a front loader. Some sand is excavated from under water
using floating dredges. These dredges have a long boom with a rotating cutter head to
loosen the sand deposits and a suction pipe to suck up the sand.
5 If the sand is extracted with a front loader, it is then dumped into a truck or train, or
placed onto a conveyor belt for transportation to the nearby processing plant. If the
sand is extracted from underwater with a dredge, the slurry of sand and water is
pumped through a pipeline to the plant.

Sorting

6 In the processing plant, the incoming material is first mixed with water, if it is not
already mixed as part of a slurry, and is discharged through a large perforated screen
in the feeder to separate out rocks, lumps of clay, sticks, and other foreign material. If
the material is heavily bound together with clay or soil, it may then pass through a
blade mill which breaks it up into smaller chunks.
7 The material then pass through several / perforated screens or plates with different
hole diameters or openings to separate the particles according to size. The screens or
plates measure up to 10 ft (3.1 m) wide by up to 28 ft (8.5 m) long and are tilted at an
angle of about 20-45 degrees from the horizontal. They are vibrated to allow the
trapped material on each level to work its way off the end of the screen and onto
separate conveyor belts. The coarsest screen, with the largest holes, is on top, and the
screens underneath have progressively smaller holes.

Washing

8 The material that comes off the coarsest screen is washed in a log washer before it is
further screened. The name for this piece of equipment comes from the early practice
of putting short lengths of wood logs inside a rotating drum filled with sand and
gravel to add to the scrubbing action. A modern log washer consists of a slightly
inclined horizontal trough with slowly rotating blades attached to a shaft that runs
down the axis of the trough. The blades churn through the material as it passes
through the trough to strip away any remaining clay or soft soil. The larger gravel
particles are separated out and screened into different sizes, while any smaller sand
particles that had been attached to the gravel may be carried back and added to the
flow of incoming material.
9 The material that comes off the intermediate screen(s) may be stored and blended
with either the coarser gravel or the finer sand to make various aggregate mixes.
10 The water and material that pass through the finest screen is pumped into a
horizontal sand classifying tank. As the mixture flows from one end of the tank to the
other, the sand sinks to the bottom where it is trapped in a series of bins. The larger,
heavier sand particles drop out first, followed by the progressively smaller sand
particles, while the lighter silt particles are carried off in the flow of water. The water
and silt are then pumped out of the classifying tank and through a clarifier where the
silt settles to the bottom and is removed. The clear water is recirculated to the feeder
to be used again.
11 The sand is removed from the bins in the bottom of the classifying tank with
rotating dewatering screws that slowly move the sand up the inside of an inclined

cylinder. The differently sized sands are then washed again to remove any remaining
silt and are transported by conveyor belts to stockpiles for storage.

Crushing

12 Some sand is crushed to produce a specific size or shape that is not available
naturally. The crusher may be a rotating cone type in which the sand falls between an
upper rotating cone and a lower fixed cone that are separated by a very small distance.
Any particles larger than this separation distance are crushed between the heavy metal
cones, and the resulting particles fall out the bottom.

Quality Control
Most large aggregate processing plants use a computer to control the flow of materials. The
feed rate of incoming material, the vibration rate of the sorting screens, and the flow rate of
the water through the sand classifying tank all determine the proportions of the finished
products and must be monitored and controlled. Many specifications for asphalt and concrete
mixes require a certain distribution of aggregate sizes and shapes, and the aggregate producer
must

The preparation of sand consists of five basic processes: natural decomposition, extraction,
sorting, washing, and in some cases crushing. Sand is extracted from the location at which it
occurs by either a floating dredge or front loader. The dredge delivers a slurry of sand and
water to the processing plant via pipeline, while the front loader simply scoops the sand up
and into trucks or onto conveyor belts for transporation to the plant. The sand is sorted

through a series of screens that separate differently sized particles. The sand is washed, and
the smaller particles are sent to the sand classifying tank, where the particles are further
separated. Some particles may be crushed if smaller particles are needed.
ensure that the sand and gravel meets those specifications.

The Future
The production of sand and gravel in many areas has come under increasingly stringent
restrictions. The United States Army Corps of Engineers, operating under the Federal Clean
Water Act, has required permits for sand extraction from rivers, streams, and other
waterways. The cost of the special studies required to obtain these permits is often too
expensive to allow smaller companies to continue operation. In other cases, residential
development in the vicinity of existing aggregate processing plants has led to restrictions
regarding noise, dust, and truck traffic. The overall result of these restrictions in certain areas
is that sand and gravel used for construction will have to be transported from outside the area
at a significantly increased cost in the future.

Where to Learn More

Books
Brady, George S. and Henry R. Clauser. Materials Handbook, 12th Edition. McGraw-Hill,
1986.
Hornbostel, Caleb. Construction Materials, 2nd Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1991.
Siever, Raymond. Sand. W.H. Freeman and Company, 1988.

Periodicals
Grover, Jennifer E., Bob Drake, and Steven Prokopy. "100 Years of Rock Products, History
of an Industry: 1896-1996." Rock Products, July 1996, pp. 29+.
Mack, Walter N. and Elizabeth A. Leistikow. "Sands of the World." Scientific American,
August 1996, pp. 62-67.
Miller, Russell V. "Changes in Construction Aggregate Availability in Major Urban Areas of
California Between the Early 1980s and the Early 1990s." California Geology,
January/February 1997, pp. 3-17.
Chris Cavette

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