Guinea Bissau

How do you protect a beach when the sand itself is valuable enough to mine?

At Varela, the sand contains unusually high concentrations of heavy minerals including ilmenite, rutile and zircon. Over time, waves and currents have sorted the grains by density, concentrating the heavier minerals in certain layers.

That has turned beach and dune sand into a mineral deposit that can be mined for materials including titanium and zirconium.

But when the beach itself is the deposit, the question becomes sensitive. Elsewhere, coastal sand extraction has led to erosion, impacts on groundwater and loss of habitats. At Varela, plans for extraction have met strong local opposition and concern over nature, water, sacred sites and people’s livelihoods.