Infill Thinking has learned that High Roller sand just opened their Winkler Plant this week where they will sell a new product, WD100 (Winkler damp 100 mesh).
This new damp sand expansion project puts a dedicated wet-sand-only plant in the Kermit sand production zone for the first time. To date, most of the damp sand pure play plants have gone into the eastern Midland Basin via proximity mines around Big Spring, with a facility or two in the Delaware as well. This is a unique damp sand offering in the heart of dry sand production territory.
About This Plant
High Roller’s Winkler Plant opened on Sept. 15 and production is ramping up now.
Here are a few things we learned about the operation this week:
- 1.2mmtpa capacity (this facility is using the shuttered Penwell Plant’s wash equipment) located adjacent to the Freedom Proppants Kermit location on land that High Roller owned for their original project there and retained after selling their larger plant on the property
- High Roller has received more interest than they can handle they are welcoming inbounds from other mines looking for damp feed, and are offering damp sand to dry sand sand producers in the area looking to supplement their own wet plant throughput (in these cases, they are moving the feedstock by end dump construction trucks and dropping at the customer’s WIP plant – boxes don’t make sense for this application) this plant will have a more comprehensive washing process vs. most damp in-field mines with a full size McLanahan wash plant equipped with settling tanks, cyclones, and recirculating water – it’s robust just like a full-scale permanent plant on the wash side for 2023, the company expects to have a couple of dedicated frac crews using their product with logistics handled either by boxes or a bulk type setup this sand will be sold at a modest discount to competing dry product, as the company is able to pass on some of the savings from not only the lower opex of not drying but also the lower growth and maintenance capex requirements management stressed that they would not have built this just to build it; however, they owned all the pieces, which were sitting idle (land, water, reserves, power, idle wet plant) and just put them together – makes sense to utilize unused assets in this tight market unlike most damp sand mines, this will not necessarily be a proximity mine, but it will deliver benefits on OSHA compliance (no dust) and mine-gate costs plus surety of supply in a tight market
Unique Engineered Features – WIP Decant System (aka Super Sand Sieve) & High Speed Belt Filter Press
High Roller EPC, a sister company to the plant owner within the High Roller Group, constructed this plant and there are several new innovations in the design that optimize efficiency and the product.
- A specific, tailor-made wet sand drain was installed here. This system is an upgrade over other in-basin drain systems with particular attention paid to cost and ease of installation. At this location, the company used the patent pending Super Sand Sieve system designed by High Roller EPC and Ferguson Water Works, which is designed to more than handle the static and dynamic loads of large wheel loaders to include sheer forces of spinning wheel loader tires. The total depth of the drain is under 22″ and it’s fully flushable. The limited total depth means plant operator won’t have to waste thousands of tons of reserves to get trucks and loaders on top of it. HR EPC is marketing this new decant system to some of the proximity wet plants and any other mine operators looking to upgrade their own washed sand WIP operations and it is tailor made for West Texas Sand (contact Jeff Stringer for more information – Jeff.Stringer@hr-epc.com).
- Also unique to this plant in the Permian basin sand scene is a high-speed horizontal vacuum belt. The vacuum belt removes moisture from the sand exiting the wet plant down to 5%-6%. Moisture reduction is done in-process at the rated production rate for the wash plant. Producing this relative dry damp sand allows the plant to load trucks directly from the wash plant without an intermediate decant step. Removing this intermediate step helps eliminate unwanted debris (rocks and organics) from being picked up by the WIP loader operator. The vacuum belt also washes the sand as part of the dehydration process which significantly reduces turbidity. Together with the Super Sand Sieve, this new horizontal vacuum belt is making the process of decanting WIP much more efficient and economical. Article courtesy of Joseph Triepke, Infill Thinking
