Global demand for sand spawned a worldwide boom in illegal mining (2015)
wired.comJamaican police left stranded after thieves steal a beach This article is more than 17 years old
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent Mon 20 Oct 2008 19.01 EDT
Thieves in Jamaica have embarrassed police and triggered a political row by stealing a beach - and making a clean getaway.
Hundreds of tonnes of white sand vanished from a planned resort on the island's north coast in July but three months later there is no sign of suspects nor sand.
An estimated 500 truck-loads of sand were removed from the Coral Spring beach in Trelawny and were believed to have been sold to rival resorts, a hefty logistical feat which has stumped police.
"It's a very complex investigation because it involves so many aspects," Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner for crime at the Jamaica Constabulary Force, told the BBC.
> It's a very complex investigation because it involves so many aspects
I think this is polite way to say "a bunch of us were bribed to look the other way, get over it".
Yeah, it's not like there's hundreds of suspects. There's probably, at most, 3 large equipment owners and definitely one immediately adjacent to the project area.
The equipment would have been clearly found on an island once the pit was discovered.
I'd watch that bumbling buddy cop movie
The reality I would have been simple and boring. Corruption all the way down.
I can highly recommend watching this Video by practical engineering: Is the World Really Running Out of Sand? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB0qDQFTyE8 (Spoiler: It's not)
Growing up in India, this was a huge issue back then. Sand miners were sort of like your alcohol runners. Big mob operations with connections into a bent police force at a high level.
One of those things which needs a strong state to protect the commons. Weak state power is easily outmatched by individual agents of the state conspiring with the mob.
The mob infiltrates the state. You need to be able to disrupt the ability of organized crime to maintain itself. It can be done. The U.S. crushed the Italian mob with RICO prosecutions.
"Big mob connections" infiltrated the state, the "police force at a high level." To me, this in and of itself says the strength of a given state apparatus is orthogonal to whether that apparatus is used "to protect the commons."
Less than you think will change. Instead of bribing cops they will pay engineers and lawyers to work with the state to create an air of legitimacy to the whole thing
"You see here farmer Johnson loses everything for clearing and planting that acre without permits but we're happy to issue permits to clearcut 100x that for a bigco project".
And the useful idiots will cheer.
Is it possible to just figure out the ratio of rocks and put them into a grinding machine to make custom sand?
Yes:
"Crushed rock sand – An economical and ecological alternative to natural sand to optimize concrete mix"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221302091...
The main problem is that even though crushing rocks is affordable, illegal sand mining is even cheaper in regions where law enforcement is weak.
Zombocom… the only limit is your imagination.
In all seriousness, rock crushing is energy intensive relative to just taking sand from the source.
Create a bag of rocks and leave them in an area with lots of waves.
Let nature and physics do the rest.
Pretty sure this is a joke but you never quite know, given that HN is infamous for these "javascript programmer applies his smarts to something that's not javascript" moments.
"bag of rocks" is so ridiculous that I would call it a joke for sure.
In a few million years
You’re talking about a product that’s quite literally “pick it up and sell it”. Adding a single step to the process will be economically more expensive. Mining, logging, fishing etc. are all similar examples.
It isn’t quite pick it up and sell it (just like most mining) - a lot of work goes into finding and consistently identifying the correct grade.
You'd also care about angular sand vs round sand grains.
This is the difference and why smashing up rocks doesn’t get the same result. Round sand is nicer.
You can probably engineer the sand somehow but it’s going to be costly.
I thought it was the other way around. Too fine/round is not good for concrete, which is why desert sand is unsuitable.
Yes, if you want a good stable foundation for any structural base you want your medium to be sharp and irregular so it locks together. Round material, be it sand or rocks, can be pushed around more like a liquid. Sharp and irregular get tangled together and acts more like one solid object.
GP is probably talking about beach sand.
it would be better to farm coral reefs and parrot fish
That article is a bit old but I loved this one (a bit more arty) from 2023: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/137/544999/extracting-soverei...
Nice article! Here is another: Ghost ships, crop circles, and soft gold: A GPS mystery in Shanghai, https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/11/15/131940/ghost-shi...
I suppose, those who don't like their sand gone are told to go pound ... some alternative.
I love that I learned about this from the HBO show Barry