Producer
U.S. Silica
Largest US producer of commercial silica products including glass-grade sand; mines in Illinois, West Virginia, Texas. Supplies flat glass producers, container glass, and oil & gas (frac sand). Acquired by Apollo Global Management 2024 (take-private).
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Inputs supplied
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Goods downstream
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Facilities
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Stories
What they make
1 input U.S. Silica supplies
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What else they do
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Oil & Gas Frac Sand (Hydraulic Fracturing Proppant)
45%Glass & Industrial Sand
40%Specialty Minerals & Industrial Filtration
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Intelligence
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Did you know2023
U.S. Silica mines high-purity silica sand from the same Wisconsin/Illinois and West Virginia geological formations and ships it into four structurally distinct supply chains: (1) Hydraulic fracturing — frac sand is the highest-volume proppant in US shale oil and gas wells; US Silica is a top-3 US frac sand supplier; (2) Float glass manufacturing — low-iron silica sand (SiO2 >99.5%) is the primary raw material for window glass, architectural glass, and solar module cover glass; (3) Fiberglass and container glass — intermediate purity sand for glass wool insulation and food/beverage container glass; (4) Silicon metal production — silica quartzite (higher-purity deposits) is reduced with carbon in electric arc furnaces to produce metallurgical silicon, the feedstock for solar polysilicon and aluminum alloys. The same earth material — quartz/silica — extracted from ancient sandstone formations enables oil extraction, solar panel manufacturing, food safety (glass containers), and semiconductor supply chains. U.S. Silica is invisible as a brand to consumers but its product is embedded in these four overlapping industrial systems simultaneously.
U.S. Silica Holdings ↗Origin2023
U.S. Silica traces its founding to 1895 in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia — where a deposit of unusually pure Ottawa/Jordan sandstone has been mined continuously for over 130 years. For the first century of operation (1895-2005), U.S. Silica was a straightforward industrial minerals company: silica sand for glass manufacturers, foundry casting, and chemical production. The company had an unremarkable profile as a niche industrial supplier. The business transformation came from the shale oil and gas revolution: hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') requires massive volumes of silica sand as proppant — the sand grains hold open the fractures drilled into shale formations. US Silica revenues roughly tripled from 2010 to 2014 as Permian Basin and Bakken operators ramped up frac sand demand. The company went public in 2012 during the shale boom, then took-private again in 2024 via Apollo Global Management after frac sand prices collapsed. A 130-year-old West Virginia industrial minerals company became entangled with the shale energy revolution — then had to survive when it ended.
U.S. Silica Holdings ↗