Atlas Reports Feed System Damage after Kermit Mine Fire

Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. has said that the mechanical fire at its mine in Kermit, Texas, primarily impacted the mine’s feed system.

The company said in a press release it expects to completely rebuild the impacted system, which transports sand from the dryers and separators to storage silos, by the end of the second quarter.

A mechanical hire hit the facility April 14, Atlas confirmed. It said that all personnel at the site, including company employees and contractors, were safe. No injuries occurred or environmental impacts have been reported, the company said.

“We are very proud of the quick action from our integrated teams, both Atlas and Hi-Crush, who are working to deliver collaborative, timely and customer-focused solutions. While we work hard to ensure events like this do not occur, we are focused on safely returning the facility to operation as soon as possible. In addition, benefitting from our differentiated scale and associated geographically distributed proppant production operations, we are continuing to support our customers’ ongoing needs”, John Turner, President, CEO and CFO of Atlas, said.

The company said it was conducting a preliminary assessment of the facility. Atlas said it began moving temporary loadout equipment to the Kermit facility within 48 hours of the incident. “The facility remains closed and initial restart of operations is expected at the beginning of next week”, the company said.

Upon restarting the facility and ensuring the temporary loadout equipment is fully functional, all customer commitments at the Kermit facility are anticipated to be met with sand produced and loaded from the facility. An evaluation of the repair costs for the feed system was underway, alongside an assessment of the financial implications of the incident. Furthermore, an insurance claim has been filed, with coverage expected to be accessible for reimbursing the repair expenses, Atlas said.

“The temporary closing of the Kermit facility will have no impact on the timing or cost of the Dune Express construction. Atlas will provide additional updates to our second quarter operations on our first quarter earnings call scheduled for Monday, May 6”, the company said. 

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