White Sand - Does It Contain Free Silica ?

plazaman

Does white sand contain free silica?

What is the purpose for white sand?

Thanks

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jvcstone

If it's quartz sand, then it's got silica in it, quartz being SiO2. If its a ground up coral type sand , it may or may not have silica in it. If you can't tell by looking, take some down to a local university or rock shop and ask their opinion.

JVC

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John VanCamp
www.jvcstoneworks.com

concretemasonry

White is just the color and does not necessarily determine the composition, but white sands generally have very low iron and other material contents. White or light colored stone (limestone, dolomite, marble) can be crushed to a sand size.

The most common white sand is silica sand that is almost 100% silica (99.9+%). It is spherical and is very rarely crush to create respirable silica. Because of the inertness, cleanliness, hardness, durability and spherical shape, it can be handled easily. It is usually available in a limited range of uniform sizes in bags.

The most common uses are for white masonry mortar, engineering testing procedures, sand blasting, foundaries and is pumped into old oil wells under high pressure to split seams and re-activate them.

I don't know what your definition for free silica is, but sawn or crushed silica may be fine enough to be respirable just as othe materials are.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

plazaman

thanks for the info.

i wanted to know if it was safe for sandblasting.

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