MEC&F Expert Engineers : A worker was injured when two train cars at a private line at the Superior Silica Sands, Inc. sand and silica plant in South Bexar County, Texas derailed

Saturday, June 23, 2018

A worker was injured when two train cars at a private line at the Superior Silica Sands, Inc. sand and silica plant in South Bexar County, Texas derailed













SAN ANTONIO, Texas —


A worker was injured when two train cars at a private line in South Bexar County derailed Saturday.

Emergency crews were called to a sand and silica plant on the 24,068 Pleasanton Road, San Antonio, Texas around 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

A Bexar County spokesperson said cars were being loaded when two of the cars somehow detached from the other cars and began to roll. The cars then derailed, one of them falling on its side.

Details about the age and identity of the worker and that person's condition were not released.


Superior Silica Sands is a top four provider of high-quality frac sand for oil and gas well completions in the energy services industry. We have mines and production facilities in Clinton and New Auburn, Wisconsin, and Kosse, Texas. At these facilities, we produce the coarsest ratios of Northern white sands and quality Native Texas sand. The combination of our three plants, plus numerous transload locations throughout North America, gives us the ability to produce over 4.2mm tpy of in-demand, high-quality frac sand. Because we are centrally located, we can efficiently and economically ship our sands throughout most parts of North America.

SSS/EMES acquired the San Antonio, TX mine and dry plant operation on April 12, 2017. This acquisition comes with a unique history, where mining for concrete roads and bridges began by Mr. Dave Lehr prior to 1900, and transportation at that time was primarily by horse and wagon! A rail line, SAU&G, was introduced in 1912, and the location was purchased by the Osburn family, sometime later, upon Mr. Lehr’s death. The plant changed ownership again in 1959 when the Tooke family purchased the plant and property, and they continued to mine for industrial, construction and sports sands, delivering to domestic and export markets until SSS’ acquisition.

The San Antonio plant has a production capacity for 600,000 TPY of wet sand and 300,000 TPY of finished dry sand. SSS is undergoing an upgrade plan at this site that will eventually include a full scale 3MM TPY dry plant, with expected completion in mid-2018. Upon completion of this new dry plant, the San Antonio operation will have a total frac sand capacity of 3.7MM tons per year of 100M and 40/70 mesh product. In addition, this site will continue to product sand for the construction, foundry and sports markets.

Our San Antonio Plant has over 80MM tons of sand reserves consisting mostly of API spec’d 40/70 and 100M. Located near the heart of the Eagle Ford basin, this site offers direct trucking to the wellsite, as well as low-cost transportation into the Permian Basin via the Union Pacific Rail mainline.