The mining industry contributes remarkably to the Economy of India. The sand mining industry is one of the key contributors in the mining sector. Sand mining is a process to extract sand and other rare earth minerals from the open pits. These rare earth minerals generally consist of elements like ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon, sillimanite, leucoxene and monazite. These seven elements are extensively used in various day to day consumer products, as well as high tech applications. Due to various conservative policies of government, the potential of private players in this industry is hindered. Beach sand-mining is different in many aspects. It is an important industry whose development is essential not just for India's economic health but also strategic benefit. Until 1998, rare earth minerals were completely controlled by the government. Globally, the rare earth mineral market is dominated by China with 97% of the export and India is the second largest exporter. Prices have increased, due to Beijing’s latest restrictions on rare earth minerals export. Countries like United States, France and Japan have being showing interest in the development of Indian rare earth mineral deposits.