Dakota Plains Holdings, UNIMIN to build CP-served frac sand facility in North Dakota

Dakota Plains Holdings Inc. and UNIMIN Corp. yesterday announced they're jointly building a frac sand storage and transloading facility at the Pioneer Terminal in New Town, N.D.

Construction is under way and slated for completion in January 2014. To be served by Canadian Pacific, the facility will feature track capacity for 70 loaded rail cars and offer throughput capacity of about 750,000 tons per year. The terminal will supply energy service companies with frac sand sourced from UNIMIN's proppant production facility in Tunnel City, Wis.

"This sand terminal complements the ongoing Pioneer Terminal expansion launched earlier this year, which is on schedule for a year-end start up, and launches an inbound oilfield supply service to the Bakken and Three Forks operators in the Williston Basin," said Dakota Plains Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Craig McKenzie in a press release.

UNIMIN's Tunnel City plant is on schedule to begin operations by year's end and will subsequently begin rail shipments to supply the Pioneer Terminal with frac sand, said Lou Mastandrea, UNIMIN's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Through its network, CP will provide direct service from the sand source in Tunnel City to New Town.

"We look forward to leveraging our network to provide a cost-effective way for inbound materials to reach Bakken production areas," said Tracy Robinson, CP's VP of energy and merchandise.