Rock Products

MAR 2018

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24 • ROCK products • March 2018 www.rockproducts.com FRAC SAND INSIDER Minnesota Sands Appeals Frac Sand Mining Ban Minnesota Sands is not done challenging the Winona County, Minn., frac sand mining ban in court. Winona County Dis - trict Court Judge Mary Leahy ruled last November to uphold the county's ban. Recently, the frac sand operator appealed the case to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, according to the Winona Post. Minnesota Sands stated that it holds leases or interests to $3.6 billion in frac sand deposits in Winona County. The La Crescent, Minn.-based company and another group – South- east Minnesota Property Owners – sued the county in spring 2017. Among other claims, they argued that the ban on any mining or processing of sand used for fracking – while allow- ing the mining of sand for construction and agriculture uses – violated the U.S. Constitutions' interstate commerce clause and the U.S. and Minnesota constitutions' equal protection and due process clauses. The county's claims that it adopted the ban to protect groundwater, scenic beauty and citizens' health are a sham, Minnesota Sand attorney Christopher Dolan wrote in a memo to the district court last fall. "If the county were actually con- cerned about mining's impact on its natural resources and community health, it would have regulated the size of mines, scope of mining, or type of mines allowed in the county; it would not have banned the sale of sand to a particular type of end user," he wrote. The Winona County Land Stewardship Project is continu- ing its support of Winona County's frac sand mining ban. The activist group said in a statement that the decision by Minnesota Sands to take the Winona County District Court's dismissal of its lawsuit to the state's Court of Appeals "is simply more evidence of what's been clear to southeastern Minnesota residents for years: the oil, gas and frac sand industry has no respect for rural people, our communities, our democracy or the land. It is yet another outrageous and desperate attack by an industry that is unwilling to take 'no' for an answer in its quest to exploit our region's hills, bluffs and farms for the silica sand found beneath them. "No industry has a right to profit by harming public health, safety and welfare, or destroying the land," the group stated. "For this reason, to protect the common good Winona County passed the ban and was fully within its rights to do so. Long-standing legal precedent supports the authority of a local government to use its zoning powers in this way to pro- tect the community, as Judge Leahy's ruling made clear. We are confident that the Court of Appeals will likewise uphold Winona County's democratically enacted decision." Badger Mining Corp. Releases Badger Tundra Badger Mining Corp. (BMC) announced the release of Badger Tundra, a f i r s t - o f - i t s - k i n d , a c t iva to r - f re e , low-temperature resin coated Northern White sand that works in conditions as low as 70 degrees Fahrenheit. While competitor's products either crumble under the pressure, fail to generate consistent bond strength at low tem- peratures, or set up prematurely, BMC's Badger Tundra sets the benchmark in activator-free, low-temperature prop- pant flowback solutions, according to the company. "In today's oil and gas environment, operators are looking for low-cost solu- tions," said Joe Cessar, leader of oil and gas sales at BMC. "Badger Tundra gen- erates real, repeatable bond strength to prevent proppant flowback at tempera- tures as low as 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Our customers can complete their wells with confidence and generate a very quick return on a relatively modest investment." With its new and proprietary resin for- mulation, Badger Tundra will protect operators from surface iron washouts, excessive spend on sand separators and disposal, expensive coiled tubing cleanouts, and the pulling and replac- ing of down-hole pumps. Furthermore, Badger Tundra is the first proppant technology to utilize more than 60 percent bio-renewable materials in its composition. "We looked at the available low-tem- perature products on the market, be they phenolics or polyurethanes, and recognized the technology being used was simply not good enough," said Adam Katz, leader of sales and mar- keting at BMC. "So we went back to the drawing board and developed a brand new technology that is truly unique and custom designed for low temperature wells. There is no question that Badger Tundra is the best low-temperature resin coated sand on the market, so why pump anything else?" All Badger Tundra is coated on Badger- Frac, a Premium Northern White sand substrate originating from the compa- ny's mining facilities in Wisconsin, and can be available at any of BMC's two dozen distribution centers throughout the Americas.

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