The Economics of Mining Frac Sand
This is part of the USGS Geologic Atlas for Goodhue County that includes the proposed mine site. It's not exact, but a good representation. Each color represents the type of rock that exists at the surface if there was no soil. The Jordan Sandstone, which is mined for frac sand, is bright yellow. The blue and bluish white represents the Prairie Du Chein which is the limestone on top of the hills and bluffs.
Imagine the blue as hilltops and the green as valleys. The Jordan which is mined for Fracking is underneath all of the blue and above the green. If you could strip away the blue there would be yellow underneath.
In the Center of the map you can see the intersection of County 5 and Highway 58. The green that occupies the left side of the map is the Hay Creek Valley. The Horizontal green strip in the middle slightly towards the bottom is the valley occupied by Old Church Road.
The blue limestone is quarried in the area. It is crushed and used for road work. The amount that gets quarried is limited by the cost of hauling it by truck. Limestone quarries must be near the area the crushed rock will be used otherwise it becomes too expensive.
In the past the same could be said for the mining of sandstone. At ten to forty dollars per ton you can't afford to truck sand very far. Most of the cost of the sand is shipping. We have heard numbers anywhere from $300 to $1400 per ton for Frac sand. Oil companies ship the sand thousands of miles.
Demand for the sand is tied to demand for natural gas and oil. As long as people want more gas and oil there will be economic incentive to mine. There is nothing to stop oil companies from hauling away entire bluffs.