ON ANGULAR SAND

SAUDI ARABIA HAS A WEALTH OF OIL, BUT its sand may be less valuable than Greenland’s.

I come by this tidbit from an odd source: a lengthly response in the London Review of Books “Letters” column, May 8, 2025. Its oddity, unlike most of LRB’s letters, lay in its having name and address withheld. We can only guess why. Tidbits gleaned from the LRB letter are in quotes here.

An Increasingly Valuable Resource. “James Meek recognises that Trump’s ‘deep attachment to symbols of power and identity’ is probably sufficient to explain his interest in Greenland (LRB, 17 April). As he notes, two other common rationalisation—securing the Arctic frontier against Russia in a world with less or no northern sea ice, and the exploitation of rare earth elements—fall on the grounds that these things are impracticable and unnecessary. However, Greenland does stand in a unique position with regard to another increasingly valuable resource: sand.”

Recall “On Greenland, Not Just Over It   Part 2,” where author Meek observed, “the world looks very different from the cartography we’re used to….” He cites a WWII importance of Greenland’s cryolite, used to smelt aluminum. 

But Meek also deemphasized the importance of Greenland’s other material wealth: “Trump has a lust for plunder—see Iraq and oil—but, again, the argument doesn’t stand up to examination. Building and running a mine in Greenland, with its lack of infrastructure, its difficult climate and limited local workforce, is a long-term, high-risk endeavour.”

Sand and Gravel—Predominant Minerals. The LRB writer recounts, “The rapid urban expansion of the 20th century necessitated the mining of vast quantities of sand and gravel, the primary constituents of concrete. By a wide margin, sand and gravel are extracted in greater amounts than any other material (nearly thirty gigatons per year by 2010, presumably a vast underestimate considering the power of illegal sand-mining operations). Nonetheless, the global sand supply system is bracing for hard times. A global sand shortage is widely seen as inevitable, and may have arrived already.”

But Not Just Any Sand. “One issue is that not all sand works as aggregate for concrete. An individual grain in the Sahara has probably spent a million years experiencing mechanical abrasion, getting rounded and polished as it blows in the wind and slams into its neighbours, but for concrete the grains need to be rough and angular if they are to pack together effectively. Riverbeds are full of suitable sand.”

Above, grains of sand shown by scanning electron micrograph. Image by NASA via Wikipedia. Below, sand grains from Egypt’s Western Desert; pitting is a consequence of wind transportation. Image by Wilson44691 also via Wikipedia.  

However, riverbed sand is particularly complex to extract: It’s geographically limited, labor-intensive, and potentially disastrous environmentally. 

Greenland’s Melting Glaciers. “Another ideal source of angular grains,” the LRB source observes, “is from the bed of melting glaciers. As the Greenland ice sheet retreats, it grinds down the underlying bedrock and liberates fine-grained sediments. These are carried by river channels to the coast, forming deltas. Mining these deltas would probably involve the use of floating suction dredgers to pipe sand from the delta directly into larger tankers. This obviates the need for a skilled local labour force and carries less long-term risk than developing a mine; you can simply pull anchor and sail away.”

 It May Be Beyond Trump’s Ken. “Trump himself is more interested in turning ‘the world’s largest island’ red, white and blue on the map than in any of these considerations. But that isn’t necessarily true of some of the people around him. For example, his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald when the firm acquired a $10 million stake in the Critical Metals Corporation, which is actively pursuing a rare-earth mine in southern Greenland (he stepped down after he was confirmed by the Senate).”

EVs Versus Gaudy Condos? “One wonders,” the LRB reader writes, “if the smart money might shift from the extraction of materials that would go into solar panels, turbines and EVs to the mining of materials to build gaudy skyscrapers and luxury condos. An enormous ship anchored far offshore, hauling away the island itself as it is ground to gravel under the melting ice sheet, all to build the Trump Hotel Rafah: it feels almost inevitable.” 

Thanks, Anonymous. You’ve raised a very good point. And note that Gaza’s polished sand may not be nearly as optimal for concrete. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025