FRAC SAND MINING
Frac sand in focus
While a specialist industrial sand market, the stakes are high in frac sand mining as the material has to meet the right specifications, making it a challenge for process equipment suppliers, reports Paul Moore
According to leading industrial minerals market research and events company, IMFORMED( www. imformed. com), the US frac sand industry is preparing for a boom year as intense activity is taking place using more frac stages and longer lateral drilling in target shale. The Permian in West Texas and New Mexico is the lead target with wells frequently pumping a full-unit train of around 100 railcars of sand during completions.
Forecasts have estimated that although the average 2017 US rig count will be 60 % below activity levels during 2014, US proppant demand should exceed 2014 levels with US sand volumes to nearly double to all-time highs in 2017 at 55 million short tons, and grow another 45 % or more in 2018 to a potential 80 million short tons.
The increased demand is anticipated to push frac sand prices up by possibly 60 %, hitting the $ 40 / ton range over the next 18 months. Sand costs are about $ 25 / ton at present( and reached $ 70 / ton prior to the downturn).
Key to proppant demand is the“ proppant intensity” or proppant loading( pounds / lateral foot – lb / ft), which has increased by more than 50 % on average since the start of 2014. There has been a major shift to higher proppant loading from around 700 lb / ft to around 1,400 lb / ft, and many leading operators are testing at rates higher than 2,000 lb / ft, and in some cases more than 3,000 lb / ft.
Combined with proppant loading has been the extension of lateral lengths drilled and number of stages per well, also positively influencing proppant consumption. Stages per well rose 34 % to an average of 41 across US shale plays in 2016. Spacing between stages, which extended more than 76 m three years ago, now averages < 61 m.
All of this increased demand means a bigger market for specialist suppliers of frac sand mineral processing equipment. IM spoke to four of the key players about how their equipment is used in the frac sand industry.
McLanahan highlights separation expertise
John Best, Global Product Manager at McLanahan Corp told IM:“ When producing very discrete particle size gradations, such as in frac
The CDE Global M5500 wash plant on display at CONEXPO in Las Vegas, which went to a major frac sand producer after the show
sand, you typically see a combination of wet and dry processing. Wet processing to fully liberate the particles, remove contaminants such as clay, and make separations close to the final required product gradation. Frac sand needs strictly controlled gradation bands such as 20 x 40, 40 x 70 and 70 x 140 mesh; and with this prerequisite, accurate fine dry screening is required.”
Most McLanahan plants begin the process with a sizing screen to reduce the top size to something close to 2 mm( 10 #) or finer. This is followed by either one, two or even three stages of wet separation depending on the size fractions being targeted.“ In frac sand as with glass, sports and some construction sand, a McLanahan’ s Hydrosizer™ is key to the separation.”
McLanahan Pumps will pump the-10 mesh to McLanahan Hydrocyclones or Separators â. The Hydrocyclone or Separator ® then takes undesirable fines, nominally-75μm(-200#), out to waste and concentrates the feed slurry to the first stage of separation.
“ Hydrosizers™ make the fine cuts with accuracies close to that of fine screening. McLanahan has recently reintroduced round units for even greater efficiencies. Separation will be followed by either cycloning and further separation, or products being dewatered with
64 International Mining | JUNE 2017