Alpine Silica, a U.S. producer and supplier of premium frac sand, will build two new plants in Van Horn, Texas, and Fay, Okla., adding to its existing portfolio in the Permian basin.

The company has secured nearly 51 million tons of reserves for the Oklahoma project and expects the plant will produce more than three million tons of frac sand per year, according to a June 6 news release.

Alpine's frac sand is used to enhance recovery rates of oil and natural gas from hydraulic fracturing wells in major U.S. shale basins. The company currently owns and operates one plant in the Permian, with a capacity of approximately three million tons of frac sand per year.

"This is an exciting time for our industry, and we are at the forefront of lowering costs and increasing production to benefit our partners at major oil and gas companies," Ronald Jordan, general manager of Alpine Silica, said in the June 6 news release.

Construction on the Oklahoma plant is expected to begin in the next 30 days and should last about six months, while construction on the Texas project, which is also anticipated to produce approximately three million tons of frac sand per year, is likely to start in the next few months.