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General comment ecoQuery: https://ecoquery.ecoinvent.org/3.10/cutoff/dataset/20138/documentation
This dataset describes mining of natural sand from riverbed deposits and its processing. Mining of sand from riverbed deposits represents 70% of Brazilian production of sand for construction (MME, 2009), being the other 30% extracted from open pits. Pumps dredge the slurry, which consists of sand, water, clay, silt, and gravel, from the river bed. The sand is separated from the slurry and transported by a vessel to the loading ports, where the sand is washed to clean fines and transported to the storage piles and loaded in trucks for delivery (does not the delivery itself). The sand’s coproducts (clay, silt, and gravel) return to the river during the process not being recovered for economic purposes, furthermore they don’t receive any allocation. Sand is not sorted by grain size in this dataset.;The dataset includes the sand extraction and processing, as well as equipment maintenance. Machinery is taken into account within the dataset "diesel, burned in building machine", as all machinery runs on diesel. Administration buildings and the quarry’s end of life are not taken into account. Data were collected from literature and some additional data were measured in one quarry located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with current technology.;The representativeness of the dataset on a national scale is low ( >1%).
From the extraction of sand from the river bed by dredging.
The activities end with the sand in storage piles at the loading port. Includes the dredging of the slurry (a mix of sand, water, clay, silt, and gravel). The sand is separated from the slurry and transported by a vessel to the loading ports, where the sand is washed to clean fines and transported to the storage piles and loaded in trucks for delivery (does not include the delivery itself). The dataset also includes the land use for sand processing (at river bank). Machinery is considered within the dataset "diesel burned in building machine". Occupation of the river is not considered since mining occurs in a barge. Recultivation of closed mines is not taken into account due to lack of data. Administration buildings not included. No dust included because it is a wet process. Sand sorting by grain size is not included. |
