Since the mid-twentieth century, the extraction and consumption of mineral aggregates (i.e., sand and gravel) has grown at a higher rate and on a larger scale than any other resource group, making it the largest mineral resource currently consumed globally. Although reliable data for extraction of mineral aggregates (referred to as sand extraction) are lacking, estimates suggest that current annual extraction is as high as 40 Gt. This has important social and ecological ramifications. The industry overall is also plagued by rampant illegality, a strong black market, and intense violence, and results in the generation of severe social and environmental injustices. Yet despite the wide-ranging impacts of sand mining, there continues to be an acute shortage of research on its extraction, impacts, and solutions for future resource governance. This article draws on the political ecology literature, utilizing the concept of the commodity frontier and the theoretical framework of extractivism whilst engaging with academic as well as non-academic, grassroots literature around sand mining, to introduce the concept of “sand frontiers”. Using the sand frontier as an analytical tool, four central questions are addressed, namely: 1) What are the drivers of expansion and intensification of sand frontiers? 2) What and where are the current and potential sand frontiers? 3) How is the forward movement of sand frontiers occurring? and 4) What are the identifiable socio-ecological transformations at these frontiers? In addressing these questions, the paper bridges research gaps around solutions to unsustainable sand extraction, using the lens of post-extractivism (PE) whilst continuing to put people living at sand frontiers at the centre of proposed solutions.

自20世纪中叶以来，矿物聚集体（即沙子和砾石）的提取和消费以比任何其他资源类别更高的速度和更大的速度增长，使其成为当前全球消耗的最大矿物资源。尽管缺乏可靠的矿物集料提取数据（称为砂提取），但估计表明当前的年提取量高达40 Gt。这具有重要的社会和生态影响。整个行业还受到非法行为猖,、强大的黑市和激烈的暴力行为的困扰，并导致了严重的社会和环境不公现象。然而，尽管采砂产生了广泛的影响，但对于其开采，影响和未来资源治理的解决方案的研究仍然严重短缺。本文借鉴政治生态学文献，利用商品边界的概念和提取主义的理论框架，同时与学术和非学术性的草根采矿相关的文献进行互动，以介绍“边界沙土”的概念。使用沙边界作为分析工具，可以解决四个核心问题，即：1）沙边界扩展和加剧的驱动力是什么？2）当前和潜在的沙子边界是什么？在哪里？3）沙边界的向前运动是如何发生的？和4）在这些领域可识别的社会生态转变是什么？为了解决这些问题，本文弥合了围绕不可持续采砂解决方案的研究空白，