Silica sand is used to make proppant, which is utilized in an exploration method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. This technique is widely used in unconventional oil fields.
The 15,000-ton frac sand storage facility in San Antonio will be operational in early 2013, U.S. Silica, the No. 2 U.S. commercial silica maker, said in a statement.
U.S. Silica expects to make three to four shipments of about 10,000 tons of frac sand per month on 100-car unit BNSF trains from its Ottawa, Illinois sand mine.
BNSF provides freight transportation over a network of about 32,000 route miles across two-thirds of western United States. (Reuters)