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Select Sands cuts staff at Texas facility

Industrial
TSX:SNS
14 April 2020 15:24 (EDT)

Industrial silica supplier, Select Sands Corp (TSXV:SNS) has seen its business severely disrupted by ongoing volatility in the oil and gas industry.

The company runs silica mining operations Arkansas and a transload facility in Texas.

However, Select Sand’s largest customer has recently curtailed frac operations in the Eagle Ford Basin, which provides the transload facility with the majority of its orders.

As a result of the drop of in business, Select Sands is reducing staff at the Texas facility and will operate with a minimal crew until further notice.

Select Sands is applying for the US-based Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Paycheck Protection Program, to mitigate the impact of this reduction on its staff. 

The company’s application for the program is still ongoing and an update will be announced at a later date.

Despite the transload facility reduction, a planned reconfiguration of the facility in Arkansas will continue on as planned.

The reconfiguration will install new processing equipment at the site and improve cost efficiencies. Some staff that would otherwise be stood down are currently being utilised in the plant reconfiguration project.

President and CEO of Select Sands, Zig Vitols, stated he was appreciative of how the company’s employees have responded to the present challenges.

“These are unprecedented times and I am truly appreciative of how our collective employee base has responded and kept operations going during this challenging time.

“With the re- assignments, management sees the prospect bringing expected cost optimisation benefits online before shipments resume,” he said.

Select Sands Corp (SNS) is up 100 per cent, with shares trading for C$0.02 at 10:10am EST.

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