Projects

Silica | Sunrise Iron

Silica

High purity silica sand is a valuable industrial mineral used for frac sand, glass manufacturing, fiberglass, high temperature well cement, water filtration, and locomotive traction sand.

Immediate Goal: To build a mine for industrial silica, frac sand, and ground silica well cement retrogression inhibitor. A production level of 300,000 tons per year would generate ≈ $10 million/year revenue. Production development for advanced silica materials will be driven by cash flow from silica materials.

Silica Resource Outcrop

Value Proposition: Glass bottle plants in Colorado and oil field service companies are seeking a regional source of silica to reduce material costs. While BNSF rail is adjacent to the Cassa Deposit, with an existing siding 2.5 miles away, we will offer a mine-to-customer just-in-time transportation solutions less than 200 highway miles from both Colorado glass plants, as well as the entire Powder River and DJ Basins. There is significant upside potential in production of advanced silica materials for EOR of problem formations in Wyoming. These applications, plus the larger precipitated silica market, offer revenue potential >$50 million per year.

Silica Resource Outcrop

Two separate deposits, each over 20 million tons, offer many years of supply.

There are no producers of high-purity silica within 750 miles of our target customers.

Rail transport cost of glass and other industrial silica products into the region is $28-50/ton, which comes with potential service disruption risk.

A regional source can cut total delivered silica costs by as much as 50% while offering just-in-time delivery.

Extensive data from past work informs our product confidence.

Our high purity silica is proven for glass making, high crush strength, and is a unique raw material for high value products.

100 mesh Attrition Scrubbed Material

Past testing proves our silica is pure enough for clear and colored glass, as well as fiberglass. Recent testing of our sands by an oil major in the Powder River Basin returned crush test K-values of 7-9k and were considered favorable. Our resources offer a local source of silica for tremendous potential cost savings to glass and E&P companies in the region.

100 mesh Attrition Scrubbed Material

Sunrise Iron

Brownfield vs. opportunity: The difference is information and insight

People have been collecting iron ochre “paint” at Sunrise for over 13,000 years. From 1900 to 1980, the hematite ore at Sunrise Iron Mine kept the blast furnaces of the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mill running in Pueblo, Colorado. When the mine shut down due to the early 1980’s steel market, they left behind several million tons of ore on the surface and millions more underground.

Some might see a legacy of decay; we see a path to a greener future. Let’s take a walk.

It does not take long to see the potential for iron pigment when walking at Sunrise, it permeates everything. Different colors are possible by mixing iron with other minerals and calcining (baking) at different temperatures. Most pigment now comes from China where mountains of scrap iron are leached with acid. We will simply wash it out of the rock pile. Working with another Wyoming startup, it appears possible to create nano-scale hematite directly in a non-chemical process. This will create better pigment, and potentially, a long-sought-after product for environmental cleanup, groundwater remediation, and EOR.

CF&I left everything we need to build an iron materials industry here at Sunrise: electricity, natural gas, water, buildings, etc. We will build a process to rework the stockpiles not only for ultra-fine hematite, but utilize the coarse iron ore for direct reduction to iron, pig iron, or iron carbide that steel mills can use for a lower CO₂ steel. Technology is constantly changing what is possible, so there is value in looking backwards with fresh information. Even with advanced technologies, where is often more important than how.