ForArgyll reports that the Lochaline Quartz Sand Ltd will have amongst the highest quality available in the UK – 98.8% quartz with a grain size ranging from 100-500 microns (fines are 90-250) and with almost negligible impurities. The position of the mine, on the shores of the Sound of Mull with the facility for direct shipping out is another commercial advantage.

According to the Royal Commission The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland’s (RCAHMS ) Lochaline silica sand has use as foundry sand, fracturing and cementing in oil wells (‘Fracsand’), as an additive in construction chemicals and sealants, as a filter media for water filtration and purification, as a filler in paints and powder coats, for sand blasting and as a raw material for glass manufacturing.

Lochaline silica was of a grade specifically for the latter use, including high definition TV screens (for Pilkington), abrasives such as Silicon Carbide (silica sand and coke heated to 2000 degrees Celcius) for the Norwegian market and for building construction.  

The Lochaline mine produced around 100 000 tpa by 2008, approximately a fifth of all Scottishproduction when the mine was closed by its former owners, Tarmac, involving 11 jobs being  lost – 6 underground and 5 surface jobs.

( Old Mine wagon at Lochaline sand mine: Courtesy: Michael Jagger and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. Right)

It is now being sold to a joint venture comprising the international NSG Group (UK identity is Pilkington, Ormskirk) with Gruppo Minerali Maffet, an Italian mining company.

The Lochaline sand is reportedly destined for use in the production of solar glass panels (and possibly mining applications). The new owners expect around a production life of over 10 years from the mine. The plan is to have the mine ready to re-open by April 2012, shipping out 100,000tpa to St Helens in Merseyside, for specialist glass production there.

Lochaline is the only silica sand mine in the UK – as opposed to open quarrying, which is the more usual extraction method. It is also the most northerly extraction site for silica – the reason why it was not developed when it was first discovered in the late 19th century. The mine's fortunes were changed with the outbreak of WWII  with the need for high quality optical glass for military and laboratory glass use.