- SMDI #
- 5049
- Current Showing Name
- Canfrac Quarry
- Historical Showing Names
- Canfrac Quarry
- Company Name
- Project Name
- UTM Easting (NAD83 Z13)
- 192800.0000
- UTM Northing (NAD83 Z13)
- 5932950.0000
- NTS Sheet
- 073F05
- TRM (Township-Range-Meridian)
- 52-25-3
- Primary Commodities
- Silica Sand
- Associated Commodities
- Discovery Type
- Quarry
- Status
- Deposit: Post-Production
- Geological Details
- Producing hydraulic fracturing sand operation. Located 30 km NE of Lloydminster; and 4.8 km east and 3 km north of the village of Hillmond. Glaciofluvial sands. Production since 2006 of about 458,000 tonnes with 2013 production of 32,990 tonnes. Plant capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year. The Canfrac operation is located approximately 30 km to the northeast of the town of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, and 4.8 km east and 3 km north of Hillmond, SK, in the rural municipality of Britannia Number 502. The area is highly developed by both the agriculture and oil industries. Canfrac currently holds a total of eight quarrying leases with local freehold landowners, covering an aggregate of 1,440 acres, granting exclusive rights to explore for and extract frac sands or sand and gravel deposits on the leased lands. The current quarrying operations are restricted to one lease known as the "Thompson lease," although Canfrac's leased properties extend up to 20 km to the north and east. The property is located on a well-maintained gravel road and is mostly accessible via paved roads. Power to the site is currently sourced from the SaskPower electrical grid, and natural gas is provided to site by the SaskEnergy distribution pipeline. Water for processing operations is sourced from an adjacent slough located and supplemented by a water well on site. The deposit is described as a glacial till consisting of poorly sorted silts, very fine to very coarse grain sands, gravels, clay and silt. Various types of proppants can be used in hydraulic fracturing, depending on site-specific conditions. Current products range from raw natural sand and coated sand to man-made ceramic products. The criteria for assessing the suitability of natural sand for use in hydraulic fracturing operations is set out in the American Petroleum Institute's Recommended Practice 19C and ISO13503-2:2006. Both standards provide recommended specifications that consider particle distribution, roundness and sphericity, turbidity, acid solubility, and crush resistance when assessing a sands potential for use as a proppant. Exploration for frac sand began on the property in 2005 by Green Tree Engineering, a geological consulting company contracted by Canfrac. The focus of the program at that time was on identifying sources of -20/+40 mesh sand and resulted in Canfrac signing two lease agreements. A drill program was carried out on one of the leases, the Thompson lease, between June 23 and June 25, 2005. The purpose of the program was to determine the lateral continuity between the sand observed in trench. In total, 8 bore holes were drilled and spaced between 60 to 100 metres. Based on favourable results from the 2005 program, Canfrac constructed a quarry operation on the Thompson lease. The quarry began producing a 20/40 mesh frac sand product in 2006. To date, Canfrac estimates that approximately 458,000 tonnes (of gross wet product) has been produced. The processing plant is now capable of producing over 100,000 tonnes/year of a wet gross product comprised of 16/30, 20/40, 30/50 and 40/70 mesh products, with sales to both large and small oil-field services companies in the Viking Oil Field in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Audited financial information for Canfrac's financial year ended December 31, 2013, indicates gross sales of $3.28 million on the sale of 32,990 tonnes of frac sand. Canfrac has developed a two-staged approach to mining and processing the deposit. Stage one includes the mining and wet processing of the raw material to take place from late spring to early fall. Once the material has undergone wet processing, it is stockpiled according to size fraction. The second stage involves dry processing, final size refinement, and shipping to take place in the winter months using the wet stockpiles collected over the summer months. The limits of the sand deposit currently being exploited on the Thompson lease have not been fully defined from previous exploration programs. Potential exists for the deposit to extend to the northwest and to the south under the area of the existing processing plant. In addition, only limited prospecting and sampling work has been done on the other quarrying leases in the region. Readers are cautioned that, although the Thomson lease is in production, there is no established mineral resource or mineral reserve for the property, or feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability.
- Geological Domain
- Makwa
- Host Rocks
- Host Minerals
- Indicators
- Exploration History
- Production History
- Production Period: 2013-01-01 to 2013-12-31
32,990.00 tonnes
2013 production of 32,990 tonnes.
Summary:
- Silica Sand: 32,990.00 tonnes
Production Period: 2006-11-01 to 2013-12-31
458,000.00 tonnes
Production since 2006 of about 458,000 tonnes.
Summary:
- Silica Sand: 458,000.00 tonnes
- Reserves and/or Resources