Qatar has a large quantity of sand available for industrial uses. Qatar currently has a sand-treatment plant for construction purposes, but the viability of Qatari sand for float glass making is unknown. Float glass refers to sheets of glass made by floating molten glass on a layer of molten metal (typically tin). This process produces very flat glass with consistent thickness. Float glass is commonly used in applications such as windows, television screens, etc. The float glass manufacturing industry uses sand with high silica content (~95%), low in heavy-metal content, and also requires a particular granulometry, purity, and consistency. Silica sands are valued for a combination of chemical and physical properties. These include high silica content in the form of quartz and, very low levels of deleterious impurities, particularly clay, iron oxides and refractory minerals, such as chromite. Silica sands typically have a narrow grain-size distribution, but can also be produced by crushing weakly cemented sandstone.a Sand chemistry varies by location and geological origin, but is primarily made up of SiO2 (silica), CaCO3 (calcium carbonate), MgCO3 (magnesium carbonate), dolomite, calcite, and occasionally NaCl rocksalt.b Additionally, sand of fluvial origin is usually connoted with lower silica content, whereas sand of Aeolian origin is connoted with higher silica content. A critical factor, therefore, in defining sand or a sandstone deposit as a silica sand resource is its inherent particle size and the ease with which impurities can be removed, together with the level of losses incurred in this process.