Global demand for sand spawned a worldwide boom in illegal mining (2015)
wired.com
wired.com
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.
I think this is polite way to say "a bunch of us were bribed to look the other way, get over it".
The equipment would have been clearly found on an island once the pit was discovered.
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.
"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.
In all seriousness, rock crushing is energy intensive relative to just taking sand from the source.
Let nature and physics do the rest.
You can probably engineer the sand somehow but it’s going to be costly.
"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.