Industrial Interest in The Dune Fields
The several million tons of sand in the Salamayuca dunes can be considered as an enormous potential of silica sand since they are 90 to 95 pure silica (SiO2). Silica sand is widely used in what is called "the transforamation industry", for the making of glass, silicates, paints, glass-ceramics and ceramics. The sand of the Salamayuca dunes has attracted attention from the ceramic/glass industry but the desert sand contains sufficient impurities to pose problems with its use in industry, and a process to increase uniform purity to 97.5% SiO2 would have to be developed. Because the sands start with such a high percentage of silica, such a process is deemed feasible.
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