Inventory of technological characteristics,mining types and calculated reserves of natural sands in the great Sao Paulo region—Brazil

Considering that the volume of natural sand used in the Great Sao Paulo Region (12 million inhabitants) is presently estimated at about 700,000 cubic metres per month (gross volume of US $ 3,5 million) and that there is no organized information about this mineral resource available, the authors think it is high time to develop a research programme on this subject. After a bibliographic survey on the regional geology, extensive fieldwork was carried out and the samples collected were tested in the laboratory to obtain the mineralogical, granulometric, chemical and technological characteristics. Also studied was the regional mining types, the calculated reserves and the actual production of the ninety existing mines.