Performance Proppants of Shreveport, La., is expected to open a Red River sand mining operation by the third week of March near Doddridge, Ark., and employ 50 to 60 workers to cover two 12-hour shifts paying $16 to $22 per hour.
"We will likely begin loading trucks in the third week of March," said Ryan K. McMaster, director of sales and business development for Performance Proppants.
Overtime will be available on every shift.
He believes the company made the right decision to develop the plant on Miller County Road 4.
"The key is being located on a good sand deposit, and we still feel like we have located an ideal location for this type of operation," McMaster said.
"Our general contractor handles all of the construction and has plenty of people in place."
The Red River sand will be used in hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to extract natural gas from the earth.
The company is named Performance Proppants because proppants is a technical term for sand used in fracking oil and gas wells, McMaster said.
The mining process includes dredging, washing, drying, sizing and storing the finished product in silos, similar to bins used to store grain.
Almost 100 percent of the Red River sand will be hauled to Northwest Louisiana and East Texas for use in the Haynesville Shale Wells, according to Performance Proppants.
Miller County has helped the company regarding road access by making improvements to MC-4, which is used to access the mine.
When Roy John McNatt was county judge, road crews widened 2.5 miles of MC-4 to allow trucks to haul the river sand.
The county used $39,000 worth of tar oil to spread on the road and $10,000 worth of pea gravel, McNatt said. The tar oil and pea gravel strengthen the road bed.
Performance Proppants also signed an agreement with the county to maintain the road.
The estimated truck traffic over MC-4 will be about 200 trucks a day, seven days a week and 24 hours a day.
The Doddridge plant will be the company's second plant. Its Hat Creek plant in Bossier City, La., opened in October 2017 and also provides sand to Louisiana and Texas fracking sites.
The 1,985-acre Doddridge site has about 1,200 acres suitable for mining operations.
The company will build four 5,000-ton silos to hold processed sand, with room to add two more if market demand exists.
McNatt lost re-election as county judge; Cathy Hardin Harrison was elected.
Harrison continues to work with Performance Proppants.
"Upon taking office as county judge, I was contacted immediately by Jason Brazzel with Performance Proppants LLC concerning some road conditions on MC-4 in southern Miller County. They were concerned about some base failures and drainage problems resulting from silted-in ditches and in some instances nonexistent ditches on MC-4," she said.
"I have been told by the road crew that MC-4 was chipped and sealed this past end of summer. In the call that Mr. Brazzel made to me, he was making the point that the road was sustaining road damage already and that they have not opened their production and sales operation yet," Harrison said.
"They are still finalizing their construction and preparing for the start-up of their sales. Essentially, he was asking Miller County to stand good for the road repairs that stemmed from the initial widening and general improvements," she said.
"I gave consideration to that request due to the fact that they will provide a significant number of good-paying jobs and tax base that will benefit Miller County overall. Also, I believe that our county needs to stand good for the quality of our work. For those reasons, I did authorize our road department to do a limited amount of work as part of our standing good for the initial widening and general improvements on this road," Harrison said.
"In turn and at the same time I notified company headquarters in Shreveport that as of March 1, Performance Proppants LLC will become fully responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of MC-4," she said.
"The work that we have performed consists of 13 partial work days utilizing two to three dump trucks as available, a motor grader with operator and backhoe with operator for an approximate cost of $5,000 plus fuel," Harrison said.
McMaster said Miller County has been helpful with road maintenance.
"They have had to cap the road several times in order to get it how it needs to be," he said.
He said after March 1, Performance Proppants will assume the maintenance of MC-4.
"All maintenance will be at our expense, even if the county uses its equipment and manpower to make the repairs. The county has the needed road graders that we don't own," McMaster said.