This resource is mined in the Scottish village of Lochaline, which was visited by Ed Conway in the first of six parts of a 2023 book. Chinese vessels have attempted to covertly collect this resource from Taiwan’s Matsu Islands. India has violent “mafias” that illegally export this resource, whose mining has endangered gharials and Lake Poyang’s freshwater porpoises. Environmentalists have decried Indonesia’s massive exports to this resource’s largest importer, (*) Singapore. New Jersey has spent billions on “nourishment” projects that have replenished this resource after a 2012 natural disaster. A U.S. admiral claimed that China was making a “Great Wall” of this resource in the South China Sea as part of its reclamation process. This substance is dredged to manufacture concrete. For 10 points, name this silica-rich substance collected from beaches. ■END■
ANSWER: sand [or gravel; accept silica until mentioned; accept sand mafias or the “Great Wall of Sand”; prompt on land or sediment] (The Ed Conway book is Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization. New Jersey is spending billions on beach nourishment after Hurricane Sandy.)
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= Average correct buzz position