U.S. Silica offers stock to fund expansion

You find U.S. Silica plants in Ottawa and a dozen other U.S. locations.

But starting Wednesday you also can find it on the New York Stock Exchange with the listing symbol of SLCA.

The initial public offering by U.S. Silica Holdings was 11,764,705 shares of common stock at a price of $17 per share.

The company announced it expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $42.5 million from the offering and intends to use approximately $34.5 million to fund future capital expenditures for its business, including the construction of its new resin-coating facility.

U.S. Silica Holdings, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Frederick, Md., is the second-largest domestic producer of commercial silica used for a variety of industrial and specialty products end markets.

During its 111-year history, U.S. Silica Holdings has focused on mining, processing, logistics and materials science that enable it to produce and deliver more than 200 products.

U.S. Silica's Ottawa plant is North America's largest silica production facility, mining fine grain, nearly pure quartz sandstone from the location's St. Peter sandstone deposits.

Ground and unground silica products from the Ottawa facility have a wide variety of applications, including glass production of all kinds, foundry and refractory sand, abrasives, polishes, paint and other fillers, filtration sand, frac sand and cement testing sands.

Silica sand mining began in Ottawa in the 1860s. At that time in Ottawa, glass manufacturing was one of the most important industries and the silica sand and glass manufacturing businesses grew simultaneously.

The Ottawa facility with an office at 701 Boyce Memorial Drive became part of U.S. Silica in 1987 and has a production rate of 2.2 million tons of silica annually.

Blackwoods 2012 catalogue to reveal new 'green' workplace solutions

The catalogue will present over 20,000 new products, including the new Blackwoods Greener Workplace Range, complete with technical information, sizing and conversion charts.

The 1,800-page catalogue reflects “the Blackwoods commitment to service the ever-growing needs of their diverse customer base, with the addition of new technologies and the broadest range of workplace essentials available,” according to the company.

Product types featured in the catalogue include:  Site Safety and Traffic Control; Industrial Fasteners; Welding; Abrasives; Personal Protective Equipment; Industrial Clothing and Footwear; Safety Products; Oils and Lubricants; Hand and Power Tools; Hygiene, Janitorial and Cleaning products.

The catalogue itself will be printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved paper, meaning it is from a sustainable source; Blackwoods says each step of the print, pack and delivery process has also been monitored and implemented to reduce the impact on the environment.

“To minimise the impact of the paper production, printing and transportation – Blackwoods has also taken the industry lead and purchased carbon offsets,” said Blackwoods.