We tend to treat sand as a common, essentially infinite material, which makes lots of sense if you assume all sands are alike. But as we know, they are not: why else would a desert nation like Dubai import sand from Belgium, the Netherlands and even, believe it or not, the UK? The short answer is that some sands are more useful than others. There are plenty of grains of silica in the Great Sand Sea, but far fewer with the purity of those you’ll find at Lochaline or Fontainebleau.[3]
