Pulverized Gold: The Multi-Billion Dollar Shadow Industry of Fracking Sand

The global energy revolution driven by hydraulic fracturing—fracking—is usually discussed in terms of oil, gas, and heavy machinery. But the entire system relies on a bizarre, invisible commodity: sand. Not just any sand, but "frac sand," a highly specific, crush-resistant quartz crystal. Without millions of tons of this exact silica injected into the earth to hold open bedrock fractures, the oil simply will not flow.

This investigative business book exposes the aggressive, multi-billion-dol...