Analysis
NAICS 212322 is the 2022 national industry for industrial sand mining, part of 21232 (Sand, Gravel, Clay, and Ceramic and Refractory Minerals Mining and Quarrying). Census lists 14 example activities under it in the official index.
Between 2018 and 2023 the number of establishments grew 20% and employment fell 6%. The 2018 count used NAICS 2017, so part of a large move can come from codes being redefined rather than from businesses opening or closing.
County Business Patterns counts 216 US establishments in this code in 2023, employing 6,668 people at an average annual payroll of $86,719 per employee (75th percentile of national industries). 21% of the establishments have fewer than five employees, which points to larger operations.
By establishments it ranks 2nd of the 2 codes at this level within Sand, Gravel, Clay, and Ceramic and Refractory Minerals Mining and Quarrying, with 8.3% of them.
Its index entries, the activities Census uses to assign businesses to this code, include abrasive sand quarrying and/or beneficiating, blast sand quarrying and/or beneficiating, enamel sand quarrying and/or beneficiating and filtration sand quarrying and/or beneficiating, among 14 in all.
Its goods appear in 3 statistical lines of the US tariff schedule, mostly under headings 2505 (natural sands of all kinds, whether or not colored, other…). That link is how import data is matched to domestic producers, for example in trade-remedy cases.
Official definition
This U.S. industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in one or more of the following: (1) operating industrial grade sand pits; (2) dredging for industrial grade sand; and (3) washing, screening, or otherwise preparing industrial grade sand.
Source: US Census Bureau, NAICS 2022 Manual.
Not this code if…
Index entries (14)
- Abrasive sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Blast sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Enamel sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Filtration sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Foundry sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Glass sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Grinding sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Industrial sand beneficiating (e.g., screening, washing)
- Industrial sand sandpits and dredging
- Molding sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Sand, blast, quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Sand, industrial (e.g., engine, filtration, glass grinding, proppant), quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Silica mining and/or beneficiating
- Silica sand quarrying and/or beneficiating