Sand and sandstone deposits occur widely throughout Great Britain but only very few of these deposits have the correct physical and chemical properties to make them suitable for industrial use.

The glacial sand deposits in Cheshire (Congleton and Chelford Sands) and the Lower Cretaceous deposits in eastern and southern England account for almost half the production in England. In Scotland, silica sand is produced from the Carboniferous sandstones in Central Scotland. There is also a unique high purity silica sand of Upper Cretaceous age mined at Lochaline on the west coast of Scotland.

The Cheshire Congleton sands are an important source of foundry sand because of their uniform grain size and the lack of impurities. The Chelford sand is purer and coarser and is an important raw material for the manufacture of flat glass.

The Lower Cretaceous deposits near Kings Lynn in Norfolk are used for colourless glass containers, flat glass and foundry sand. The Folkstone Beds Formation of the Lower Greensands in Kent and Surrey are also an important source of silica sand. These deposits have low iron content making them suitable for colourless glass manufacture. They are also have a low alumina content making them suitable for the manufacture of the chemical, sodium silicate. The Kent and Surrey deposits are very variable and the sand not capable of being used for industrial purposes is usually sold as a construction sand.

Another source of silica sand occurs in the Leighton Buzzard area of Bedfordshire. These deposits are also part of the Lower Greensands known as the Woburn Sands Formation. They are used particularly for foundry, horticultural and water filtration purposes. The coarse, well rounded grain size makes them particularly suitable for filtration purposes. Silica sand is also produced from Pleistocene deposits near Chelmsford in Essex.

Carboniferous sandstone is worked for silica sand at Oakamoor in Staffordshire. The deposit has a high iron content but this is in a form that can be readily removed by hot acid leaching to produce a high quality silica sand used in glass and ceramic manufacture. Jurassic sandstones are being worked in North Yorkshire.

Silica sand deposits also occur in Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire where the Triassic deposits are extracted for foundry, horticultural and sports uses. Tertiary deposits are also being worked for fibreglass in Dorset and there are also beach deposits being worked in the Ribble Estuary off Southport.

Central Scotland is also an important source of silica sand where Carboniferous sandstone is being worked in Fife and West Lothian. The sands have a wide range of industrial uses including colourless glass. The highest purity silica sand in the UK is mined in the west of Scotland at Lochaline. Uniquely, this deposit is mined rather than quarried and after processing is 99.8% SiO2 and is used for many laboratory and scientific purposes as well as for glassware and ovenware.