Frac Sand Mining & Processing - How it works in 30 Min
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- Опубликовано: 15 янв 2023
- An in depth look at frac sand mining, processing, & shipping in Wisconsin, USA. We'll visit Fort Worth, Texas based Superior Silica Sands. See their 450 acre Auburn Mine in Chippewa County, Wisconsin which was established in 2010. Visit the Wet plant and see the washing process. Finally we move on to their dry plant which was the first facility in the Chippewa Valley to begin processing & shipping frac sand on September, 30th 2011.
You might be wondering what is frac sand?
Frac sand is a naturally occurring crystalline silica (quartz) sand that is processed from high-purity sandstone. In its make-up, frac sand differs only slightly from other types of sand, as grains of quartz silica are a major constituent of most inter-coastal sands. The difference is that other sand is a mixture of several minerals and rocks types, which are less durable than pure quartz sand.
What Is the Role of Frac Sand?
Frac sand gets its name from its use in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), a method used by oil and natural gas companies to produce natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil from unconventional, low permeability reservoirs such as shale. It is often referred to as a "proppant" because of its role in holding open fractures in the shale or rock deep within the wells.
Two of the most important qualities of quartz frac sand include a high crush resistance and a very round granular shape. This ensures that the proppant will hold up as long as possible against the enormous pressures deep within the ground and also maximizes the efficiency of the well.
In this program we'll focus on a specific variety of sand found in Wisconsin known as "Northern White Sand". Its ideal properties make it the finest in the world when it comes to frac sand.
The life of a sand mine in Wisconsin can be broken down into four steps:
1) Applying for and securing all necessary mining permits including regulatory compliance with strict water and air quality standards.
2) Removal and stockpiling of top and sub soils from the mine site commonly referred to as "overburden''.
3) Blasting and mining of the usable sandstone.
4) Once an area is mined out reclamation begins by replacing the sub and top soils to create a useable and productive landscape which is then turned back over to the land owner.
You can visit this site for a great breakdown on the whole process. wgnhs.wisc.edu/wisconsin-geol...
Here are some key points you may enjoy from this program
1:06 Overview of Superior Silica Sands Auburn Mine
2:42 Removal of overburden to the stockpile area
4:01 Drilling crew preparing for blasting
4:23 CAT 374B excavator w 10 yard bucket filling mine trucks
6:11 CAT 740B articulated mine truck
7:45 CAT 980H front end loader
8:20 Feeding the impactor
9:22 Creating a slurry and pumping to the wet plant
9:44 Wet plant
9:53 Hydro sizer - separate the sand grains
10:09 The scrubber - remove dirt, clay, shale & silt
10:26 Settling tank and belt press - reject materials settle and are separated from the water. Reject material sent to stockpile for reclamation. Water is recycled for use again.
10:54 Clean water rinse
11:13 De-watering screens
12:02 Stockpiling the washed sand
12:42 Loading dump trucks
14:32 Weighing and recording the loads
14:49 SSS New Auburn, WI dry plant overview
16:09 Dump truck arrives at the "barn"
17:17 Mike King organizing the barn with his CAT 966K
18:17 Loading the dry plant feed hopper
19:06 The dryer - reduces the sand to 0% humidity
19:24 The baghouse - 784 filter bags to trap dusty air from the dryer
20:06 Bucket elevator for a trip upstairs to the screen deck
20:26 The screen deck with Rotex sand screening & sizing machines
21:02 The different mesh sizes - 16/30, 20/40, 30/50, 40/70 & 100 mesh
21:25 The control room overview with Jim Turner and Duane Wilke
24:38 Quality control - Ro-Tap testing and recording
25:04 Routing and conveyor to the 5 storage silos
25:33 Rail car load out overview
27:36 Wisconsin Northern Railroad bringing empty cars for the SSS plant
28:35 Trans-load car spotting and operation (truck to rail loading)
29:41 Conclusion and loaded train departing Superior Silica Sands
You can get your copy of the full length 105 minute program here:
Vimeo On Demand: vimeo.com/ondemand/fracsandmi...
Blu-ray or DVD: www.pletsexpress.com/fnimall/...
Copyright © 2014 Plets Express Inc. 
Развлечения
Why is everybody beating up on the narrator. I think he did a very good job all words plain and easy to understand.
I think this is just the right amount of detail at a comfortable pace, thank you for sharing.
Glad you liked it, Thank you for watching :)
@@pletsexpress I agree, exactly the right amount of detail and very educational
I've been writing about fracking for 15 years, but this is the first time I've seen anything on the origins of frac sand. Thank you.
What kinds of articles? Thanks for watching!
In 15 years did you ever learn how to spell Frac? It looks like you have been spelling it using the stupid media do.
Thank you very much for walking through the making of FRAC Sands.
I was the first company to haul for AEC Foster Creek, in Alberta's Cold Lake Weapons Range, SAGD crude separation, through steam assistance!
1999 was the very first sagd style crude retrieval!
Kinda makes me miss my time working in mining. Good video.
Really nice, state of the art control room.
That looked like a Fred weber logo on the loader at 8:11, I work for Fred weber. At my location, we load 40/70, 100mesh and 30/50 on barges, trucks and railcars from US silica. Fred Weber is all over!
I can remember bringing units trains of sand loaded in open top gondolas from Winona to Adams for points south. Reminded me of when they loaded grain in cars like that in OK and TX.
The unit trains of open top gonds were short lived in New Auburn, WI. The train you see in the clip went to Adams and then on to Butler so who knows maybe you hauled it! SSS only did that before their dry plant was set up and functional. What you see in the gondolas is washed sand but not yet processed. Thank you for watching :)
Who thought that children playing with sand on the beach making all sorts of castles & mounds & pools, would grow up to work doing the same as adults, and even get paid quite well for it!
haha, yes, who would have thought?
I work for a sand plant. We do Above and below ground mining. We make 25 ft passes under ground. 25 ft wide and 25 ft tall. Our under ground mine goes under the highway. It goes a long way back under ground. I just got a new loader at work. A johnn deere 844l. Not a fan of it. I like the cat 980 or 982 better. Our haul trucks are cat 773 models. We have 2 different plants. One for frac and one for other type of sand. We makes several different types of sand. We ship alot of sand to use in glass . Alot of frac sand last month. U are right there is good money working in that type of a job. We work year around. Our crusher is above our wash plant . Then the dryer is bellow the wash plant. We ship several cars a week to Mexico too. Our sand is pure white. The company i work for bought 5000 acres around the plants.
you sound very informed of this process I'd like to discuss more with you . looking to invest in several mining opportunities
Great documentary.
thank you, glad you liked it :)
Great Video, well filmed and narrated, Thank you, Mark from Australia! 😀👍
I'm glad you enjoyed it Mark. I would love to someday see your huge iron ore operations in Australia, quite impressive. Thank you for watching!
There is actually a world wide shortage of sand. Saudi Arabia had to import sand from Australia for construction concrete. The Saudi's have massive amounts of sand in their deserts, however it is too old,polished and fine to be any use in concrete.
BS the earth contains so much sand there is more than enough. But the bureaucrats want to make you dependend on them and control and tax all what value the people are adding. And so they make up a fairy tail about shortage of sand. Shortly BS
What about recycled crushed glass for concrete use?
@@rtz549 crushed glass is most energy efficient being turned back into glass.......and in its crushed form, has a lot of dangerous silica dust. The EU does allow reclaimed, crushed concrete to be used, but it can only be a maximum of 30% in the concrete aggregate.
@@wazza33racer I read before that concrete made with recycled concrete is stronger then that which isn't?
Very interesting. thank you
Amazing content. Great to see sustainable mining is possible. They don't just have to be scars on the planet.
Yes, it is certainly possible to run a business and be a steward of the land at the same time. Wisconsin is tough on their regs and permits also. Thank you for watching :)
Only clicked because Ive never seen a deere haul truck before. I thought it was the new gen volvo lol. Anyways cool video! I work in a limestone quarry its pretty interesting.
thank you, and thanks for doing a tough job and being a hard working miner!
Course correction Bradley it was actually built for the SOU
come to Trinidad and Tobago and show these loooosers in office and show them how it's done.... let's get'em cowboy.🙏🌹🇹🇹
Very interesting. A well balanced presentation. The voice is just fine, and I wouldn't mind a little more about the trains.
There is a sand deposit in Northern New Jersey that runs up into New York state. Back in the 1960s there was a man who was pulling sand out of the deposit under his land, mostly used in construction. Well the guy passed away and his wife turned the operation into a play ground, letting people run the equipment at an hourly rate in the quarry for fun. Apparently she was making pretty good money at that.
There’s a real good silica mine in Gate Oklahoma I used to work there.
did you feel like a kid in a sandbox playing with trucks and machinery? Bet it was kind of fun
Where is gate
What town is gate near
Gate is a small town in northern Oklahoma@@dennisholst4322
Rosston, Oklahoma @@dennisholst4322
why can't the cleaned (expensive) reject sand sizes be used for other economic uses like sandblasting, playground sand, concrete formulations or for use in precast concrete blocks? I seems a little wasteful to clean sand only to return it to the mine as reclaim landfill?
I'm not sure on that one. SSS sold finished sand for uses besides fracking from time to time but as far as the reject material that's a good question... Thanks for watching!
Is that sand useable for mason sand ?
They sold to a variety of other customers also ranging from sports sand to golf courses to construction so not just limited to hydro fracking.
When it rains you have to shut down ?
Sun, Rain, Wind, Dark or Light doesn't matter. They ran in everything except when it gets too far below freezing at the wet plant it became impossible to run without everything freezing solid. The dry plant ran all year though. Thanks for watching
Thank you for spelling Frac correctly
What’s the name of the show this fall?
man you keep me busy! I think for now we'll just focus on getting all the programs on the poll done. Looks like Wisconsin Central is in the lead :) ruclips.net/user/postUgkxLhMcXqV2jDe9haEY74JqdPcqLqGMclWK
1.Trackside in Southern California
2.Fort Worth Hotspot
3.CSX and NS- 1991 including the 765,the 4501, the 611 and the 1218
Not interested in your train content tbh this is great though. Obviously your channel has found a home with train docs but I hope you post some alternative content once in a while like this. More mining or construction industy stuff would be great!
I'll keep those suggestions in mind! Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed it
This sand is used in fracking, like fracking for oil and gas? Is any of it used in concrete?
Nevermind, I commented too soon.
:) its ok, I'm guilty too sometimes haha Thanks for watching
Good foundry sand ?
Although America refines the most silica sand in the world it is not the best Australia has by far the best silica sand in the world.
This guy has a voice that will make a rainforest dry. I’m sorry for the honest criticism.
Narrators voice
Puts me to sleep
Poor guy running the excavator…looks like a new guy who’s learning and he had to be on video. Lol. He’s got a long way to go but at least he’s trying!!!
BRO TALK WITH SOME ENTHUSIASIM
Why don’t they run all the equipment with solar! Lol 😂
Its already part of the 18% renewable energy in the U.S. energy mix, including hydro power and wind?
That'd be aloooot of solar 😂my truck burns about 220-250L of diesel a day.
not much sun
looks cloudy
Somebody is proud of this operation but not the narrator. Maybe it is a computer voice.
This stuff causes lung related cancers pretty vigourously doesn't it?
Anything that is in the form of dust has to potential to cause harm to your body. Most of the processing of this is causing very little dust. You could liken the amount of dust present on this job site to the amount on a beach when the wind picks up. After it is used in the process of fracking, then it is a completely different story.
Yes. Absolutely. The clinical term is silicosis.
If you ran a sand blaster for a living and didn't wear a mask; you'd have lung issues.
Not one full bucket 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😮😮😮😮😮😮😮
everybody has to start sometime😀
THE HAUL ROADS ARE TEARING THE SUSPENSION UP ON ALL WHEELED VEHICLES.
WHERE ARE THE GRADERS ?
There was even a grader parked behind the washing and screening plant. That really needs to be run over the haul roads a few times more often.
Graders? lmao I've yet to see a grader work our area of the quarry. The roads are brutal and yea it definitely takes it toll on the trucks (and the operators).
@@ClutchTFS Yes graders - as you can see at 12:15, this quarry does have one. They just need to use it.
so why is it called frac sand, looks like normal river/aluvial sand to me.
its simply called frac sand due to the primary use for which it was mined and the processing methods used to achieve specific blends and mesh sizes at the dry plant for the purpose of hydro-fracturing. You are correct in your statement as well, SSS sold their sand for many other uses as well. Thank you for watching :)
Somebody is proud of this operation but not the narrator. Maybe it is a computer voice.