"Sand: The Hot New Investment Opportunity" (SLCA)

Not exactly "new", links below.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Demand for Sand Takes Off Thanks to Fracking
Companies Race to Build New Mines as Prices Rise

 

Frackers are expected to use nearly 95 billion pounds of sand this year. A sand mine in Garnavillo, Iowa. Stephen Mally for The Wall Street Journal

 

Sand prices are rising and companies are racing to build new mines in South Dakota and other locations as demand intensifies for the silica crystals that energy companies use to frack oil and gas wells.

Sand is a key ingredient in items from solar panels to smartphones, but in recent years billions of pounds of it have been poured down wells to help coax more fuel out of the ground. In hydraulic fracturing, sand is mixed in a slurry of water and chemicals, then pumped down a hole to crack open dense rocks so oil and gas can escape to the surface.

Frackers are expected to use nearly 95 billion pounds of sand this year, up nearly 30% from 2013 and up 50% from forecasts made by energy-consulting firm PacWest Consulting Partners a year ago.

It can take four million pounds of sand to frack a single well, but several companies are experimenting with using more. Companies like Pioneer Natural Resources Inc., which recently received a ruling from the U.S. Commerce Department allowing it to export unrefined ultralight oil produced from shale formations, are finding that the output of wells is up to 30% higher when they're blasted with more sand. About a fifth of onshore wells are now being fracked with extra sand, but the technique could expand to 80% of all shale wells, according to energy analysts at RBC Capital Markets.

That's great news for sand miners, but it's heating up competition between energy buyers and other big industrial users.

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc., SLCA +2.77% one of the largest industrial-sand companies, has already raised prices for some frack sand, and it said recently that it would also start charging 10% to 20% more for the finer grades of sand typically used to make glass and various industrial products as it diverts some of this supply to oil producers. The best sand is dubbed Northern White because the round crystal, which can withstand serious heat and pressure underground, is found in states like Wisconsin and Minnesota. The company expects demand for sand will be at least 25% higher than supply for the rest of this year.

"Northern White is in short supply, so people are using basically whatever they can get their hands on to complete their wells," said Michael Lawson, a spokesman for U.S. Silica.

Oil companies' insatiable appetite has even generated renewed interest in second-tier deposits of lower-quality brown sand in places like Texas and Arkansas.

Preferred Sands, which announced last month it has received backing from private-equity firm KKR KKR +1.00% & Co., plans to increase sand production by next summer with new and expanded mines in places like Wisconsin and Minnesota, said Chief Executive Michael O'Neill, though he added that it's becoming tough to find available railcars to move the sand from mines to oil fields....MORE

HT to and headline from MoneyBeat
Previously:

April 2012
What the Frack? U.S. Silica Up 24% since Feb. 1 IPO (SLCA)
May 2012
Commodities: "Midwest Sees a Sand Rush"
Jan. 2013
More Natural Gas Needed For Frack Sand Suppliers
April 2014
State of Sand, 2014
June 2014
What the Frac: "The Past Year’s Hottest IPO Is… " (EMES; SLCA)

That's just a taste of the exotica, you should see what we do with guar.