Journal of Coastal Zone Management

Coastal Mining

Coastal mining or sand mining is a practice that is used to extract sand, mainly through an open pit. However, sand is also mined from beaches, inland dunes and dredged from ocean beds and river beds. It is often used in manufacturing as an abrasive, for example, and it is used to make concrete. It is also used in cold regions to put on the roads by municipal plow trucks to help icy and snowy driving conditions, usually mixed with salt or another mixture to raise the freezing temperature of the road surface. Sand dredged from the mouths of rivers can also be used to replace eroded coastline.