Nice Saturday Evening Photograph Of Fracking Sand Terminal, Richardton, ND -- July 23, 2016

Sent to me by a reader. Thank you, very much. A frack sand train at the Halliburton terminal near Richardton, North Dakota.

What I like best about this photo? The "Big Sky" look. Brings back great memories of western North Dakota.

********************************

Speaking of Sand

This is an incredible (and unexpected) upbeat story from Wisconsin. 

Despite a slump in the U.S. oil industry, Wisconsin frac sand producers are planning to spend millions of dollars on new plants and loading facilities as they seek to increase efficiency and sell their product in new markets.

According to documents filed with state officials, at least half a dozen companies have hatched plans to build mines or loading terminals along rail lines that provide an economical link to drilling operations in Texas, where the demand for silica sand remains strong, as well as other regions.

“We feel that from a longer-term prospective it’s still a good time to make some investments,” said Jack Mitchell, president of Wisconsin Proppants, which is planning a $23.5 million rail loading facility for its mine in Jackson County.

The number of permitted industrial sand mines and processors ballooned to nearly 130, but oil prices began falling in 2015, making North Dakota crude less competitive. As drills went idle, so did Wisconsin’s sand mines, which have laid off hundreds of workers in the past two years.

But even as producers have shuttered some mines, others are making big investments — or even preparing to open new mines — to meet the demands of a changing energy marketplace:

• Meteor Timber, a Georgia investment company that has explored the possibility of mining in Jackson County’s public forests, has plans to build a $65 million sand mining operation in Jackson and Monroe counties.
• Terracor Resources is proposing a combined mine, processing and loading facility between Black River Falls and Alma Center that could produce about 3 million tons of sand a year.
• Hi-Crush Proppants is seeking to add three rail sidings at its 857-acre mine, processing and loading facility in Wyeville. Hi-Crush says it has idled a facility in Eau Claire County and is focusing on maximizing production and efficiency at the Monroe County site.
• Smart Sand Inc. plans to build a rail terminal near Tomah to handle sand from the Texas company’s existing 1,118-acre mine in Oakdale, which is about four miles away and already has a loading facility on the Canadian Pacific railroad.

All of those operations, which would allow the loading and storage of multiple trains, are situated on the Union Pacific rail line. A fourth project, since shelved because of market prices, would have been sited on the Wisconsin Northern rail line in Chippewa County, which connects to Union Pacific’s track.
Unlike the Canadian Pacific and BNSF, two major U.S. rail lines that link Wisconsin to the Bakken basin, Union Pacific lines offer a direct route to Texas.

The article is from the LaCrosse Tribune, sent to me by a reader, thank you very much.

Although I posted quite a bit from the article above, there is so much more at the link. This is a very good article from a very unlikely source. I'm quite impressed. 

At the linked article, there is much more information about each of the companies listed above, interested in expanding frack sand operations.