The Sand Mines of Wisconsin

[beige_alert]

I'd like to point everyone to this article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about the underground sand miners of Wisconsin, "Wisconsin's diamonds: 'Frac sand'."

It turns out sand is sometimes mined. Not scooped up in a pit, but mined underground. This is special sand, round and hard, and used as frac proppant, pumped into oil and gas wells to hold open fractures produced to increase flow. I do love this quotation:

Working in a sand mine does give employees an appreciation of something most people take for granted. When Stauffer visited Cancun, Mexico, recently with his family, he was probably the only person on the beach closely examining the sand squishing between his toes.

"That sand is definitely more angular. It's got more straight and sharp edges than the sand here," Stauffer said.