What we do at CSP

Canadian Sand & Proppants' Chippewa Falls facility will be dedicated to processing sand from area mines to be used in the oil and natural gas industry as Fracturing Sand.  Fracturing sand (also known as hydraulic fracturing sand, frac sand, or proppant), is comprised of washed and graded high silica-content quartz sand.  The sand grains must have a specific roundness (sphericity), crush resistance, and grain size.  Grain sizes of the sand can vary by application, but the most desired sand (referred to as 20/40 mesh) ranges from 0.42 to 0.84 millimeters in grain diameter.  The sand is used in high-pressure fluids which are pumped into oil and gas wells to enlarge or scour out openings in oil-or gas-bearing rock or to create new fractures from which oil or gas can be recovered.  The fracturing process is used to increase oil/gas output in all new well drilling, but equally important, is used to stimulate older wells to increase flows.  Traditionally, the "fracture treatment" at an average well uses 26,000 pounds of fracture sand.

CSP's process for refining the frac sand begins with mining the sand from existing, poorly-cemented, sandstone deposits.  The sandstone is first crushed (care is taken to maintain the integrity of the individual sand grains).  The sand is then scrubbed to remove all traces of sediment, clays, and organic materials.  The sand is then separated from the 'fines', which are separated from the wash water, tested, and either sold for other industrial uses or trucked back to the minesite to use in the mine reclamation process.  The water is then recycled back into the wash process.

The washed sand is then dried.  After drying, it is separated by grain size (also referred to as mesh size).  The separated sand is then loaded into silos to await shipment by rail cars to transload stations situated near natural gas or oil fields.