Metals and minerals
Silica sand
Where it comes from, what share of a sector’s output it is, and which conflicts the model routes through it.
This page shows production, shares and inputs. It shows no death toll per tonne. The shares below say what fraction of a sector’s output this material is and what fraction of a conflict’s harm the model routes to it; multiplying either by a count of people produces a result, and a result is not published until it has a run, an uncertainty interval and a confidence grade.
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Who produces it
The publisher’s own figures for 2025, across 20 countries. Nothing here has been attributed to anything.
| Country | Produced | Share | Figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States USA |
120,000,000 t | 29.8% | estimated |
| China CHN |
92,000,000 t | 22.9% | estimated |
| Netherlands NLD |
68,000,000 t | 16.9% | estimated |
| Turkiye TUR |
14,000,000 t | 3.5% | estimated |
| France FRA |
13,000,000 t | 3.2% | estimated |
| Italy ITA |
13,000,000 t | 3.2% | estimated |
| India IND |
12,000,000 t | 3.0% | estimated |
| Germany DEU |
9,200,000 t | 2.3% | estimated |
| Bulgaria BGR |
8,800,000 t | 2.2% | estimated |
| Russian Federation RUS |
7,300,000 t | 1.8% | estimated |
| Spain ESP |
6,300,000 t | 1.6% | estimated |
| Malaysia MYS |
6,000,000 t | 1.5% | estimated |
| Poland POL |
5,900,000 t | 1.5% | estimated |
| Australia AUS |
5,600,000 t | 1.4% | estimated |
| United Kingdom GBR |
4,700,000 t | 1.2% | estimated |
Production figures: FAO, FAOSTAT, CC BY 4.0. FAO endorsement of any derived figure is neither stated nor implied.
Harm per tonne and per euro
Harm per tonne and harm per euro are both computed. Neither is shown.
Harm per tonne of this material is defined for 2 years, 2024 to 2025: the years for which the model holds harm and world production of it has been ingested.
Both are counts of people divided by a quantity, from a run that has no uncertainty interval and no backtest yet, and nothing of that kind is published before session 21. What this page can say now is whether each is defined, and on what basis.
Which products use it
Semi-finished and finished products whose bills of materials reach this material, through every intermediate step, and how much of it one of them needs — losses included.
| Product | Needs |
|---|---|
| Glass
semi-finished product |
730 g for one kilogram of soda-lime glass |
| Electric car
finished product |
23.5 kg for one midsize battery-electric car of 1,769 kg |
| Petrol car
finished product |
23.8 kg for one midsize petrol car of 1,385 kg |
Quantities, not harm: how much of the material the product’s chain requires. What that carries is not shown.
Sources
| Release | Retrieved | Checksum |
|---|---|---|
| usgs_mcs · MCS2026-20260206 | 2026-09-29 | 582a0aa231aea53d… |
U.S. Geological Survey, National Minerals Information Center, Mineral Commodity Summaries data release — MCS2026-20260206, retrieved 2026-09-29 from https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/69837e43b66b01367d7ec7c7?f=__disk__d3%2Fac%2F84%2Fd3ac8466552946c5e8caa2c2c6338d9e1aff655d. Licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (public domain dedication) (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).