Future Proof and Flexible

Our experience in the industrial sands arena goes back decades and in recent years we have delivered multiple turnkey projects for some of the world’s largest frac sand companies. Our industry knowledge allows us to transform materials into the highest quality output products. Due to the modularity of our offering, we can deliver small to large-scale plants in some of the most remote locations on earth.

As the requirements of each frac sand processing project are unique, we sought to develop a machine that had the flexibility to cope with this. The specification of each machine is made up of a selection of the appropriate processing phases – slime removal, classification, dewatering, attrition - in whatever combination is needed to ensure the production of a consistently graded product that is optimized for use in downstream processes.

The modular construction allows for future changes to the plant set up on a number of fronts - capacity increases, the number of cut points and products and increased levels of attrition through the introduction of additional ShearClean™ dynamic attrition cell technology.

Sierra Frac Sand Partners with CDE to Produce Sand Gradations Required by Market Demand at a Consistent Volume Capacity.

Kim R. Smith went from wood to sand, and found a new home. He founded Sierra Frac Sand, the Tatum, Texas-based frac sand company in 2008, after working in the timber business for 25 years, and is the company president. 

Smith saw getting into the frac sand business as a real opportunity. “Kim wanted to get into something energy related,” Plant Operations Manager Cody Baker, who also worked with him in the timber industry, said. "He identified frac sand as that opportunity. He already owned a rail spur being leased from a large sand company bringing in frac sand, so there was an existing connection to the industry." 

Sierra Frac Sand now has locations in Texas and Louisiana. Its Cedar Bluffs site in Plain Dealing, La., features a permitted mining area of approximately 850 acres with almost 25 million tons of reserves remaining. This is not including sand bar or river dredging, where reserves are dependent on new sand deposits coming down river. 

One of the big challenges the company faced at Cedar Bluff in 2013-2014 was finding a quality processing plant quickly that would produce sand gradations required by market demand at a consistent volume capacity. 

The company discovered CDE equipment, and the rest, as they say, is history. "The first plant, nicknamed 'Old Blue,' was what they call their M4500 Series," Baker said. "The base of our other plant is also an M4500 with upgrades to handle volumes as if it were an M5500. The remainder of the newer plant is all custom built for our application. It’s the only one like it in the world."