Obed, Alta. – September 12, 2016 – Badger Mining Corporation (BMC) has completed arrangements to start shipping its raw and coated Premium Northern-White industrial sand to a new storage and rail-to-truck transloading facility in Obed, Alta., west of Edmonton, operated by Wayfinder Corp. The site, with its capability of accommodating up to three unit trains of industrial sand at one time, sits along the CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) main line and will allow BMC, a family-owned, value-driven company based in Berlin, Wis., to better supply its quality products to customers of the Deep Basin of Western Canada. Wisconsin is home to significant reserves of high-quality and in-demand industrial sands. One large end-user of these sands is the oil and gas industry in the hydraulic fracturing process, which utilizes sand as a proppant to hold fractures open and stimulate oil and gas production.
“We’re very excited to work with Wayfinder Corp. and the CN to bring our latest terminal in Obed to market,” says Adam Katz, leader of sales and marketing at BMC. “Looking ahead to brighter times in our industry, high capacity, unit train sites like Obed will be key to servicing our customers in Western Canada.”
JJ Ruest, CN executive vice-president and chief marketing officer, says, “CN is pleased to work with Badger Mining and Wayfinder to improve supply chain efficiencies and to increase their frac sand market share. CN has made important strategic capital investments in its network to help accommodate the business of frac sand producers in Wisconsin and receivers in Alberta.”
The new Obed facility joins Badger Mining’s 25 existing transloading locations throughout the United States and Canada, stretching from George West, Texas to Grande Prairie, Alta.
“As the industry recovers from historically low activity levels, we see significant opportunity for Wayfinder and Badger to work together in supplying Deep Basin customers the proppants they require,” says Chad Bremner, CEO of Wayfinder.
“We are wasting no time getting material to the site and ready to load,” says Katz. “In fact, the facility received its first unit train of 102 cars of 40/70 just last night.”
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