A 40-Mile Conveyor Belt in Texas is Changing the Game in Material Transport 🚧

West Texas’ 40-Mile “Dune Express” – An Overview

Photo courtesy of Atlas Energy Solutions

In the Permian Basin of West Texas, a new 42-mile conveyor belt – nicknamed the Dune Express – snakes from the sand dunes near Kermit, TX, across the state line into southeastern New Mexico.

This massive overland conveyor was built by Atlas Energy Solutions of Austin to tackle a specific challenge: efficiently moving frac sand (also known as proppant) to support the region’s booming oil & gas wells. Every shale well can require hundreds of truckloads of sand for hydraulic fracturing, but the Dune Express now carries the load continuously, cutting out thousands of highway trips.

Location & Route: Starting near Kermit (Winkler County, TX) and stretching northwest ~42 miles into Lea County, NM, the conveyor resembles a giant, undulating desert serpent. Along the way it even has an intermediate offloading station and then terminates at silo storage facilities in New Mexico. From there, driverless trucks ferry the sand on private roads to drilling sites – a futuristic supply chain end-to-end!

Operator & Purpose: Operated by Atlas Energy Solutions, the system’s purpose is straightforward: deliver frac sand to Permian Basin well sites more cheaply and reliably. Without sand, fracked oil wells wouldn’t stay open, so this conveyor is essentially feeding the lifeblood of local drilling. It can move ~13 million tons of sand per year (that’s like 35,000+ tons per day) and replaces a vast fleet of haul trucks.

Commodity Transported: Silica sand (frac sand) is the cargo – vital for propping open cracks in shale rock so oil and gas can flow. By using the conveyor, Atlas expects to drop sand transport costs and avoid the chronic shortage of truck drivers in West Texas.

Unique Tech & Challenges: Building one of the world’s longest belt systems came with innovative solutions: The Dune Express includes a record-setting 16.4-mile single stretch with no mid-point booster drive – a testament to advanced belt engineering and high-powered motors. Overall fully electric, the conveyor is designed for reliability in harsh desert conditions. The project cost nearly $400 million and took ~18 months to build, going operational in early 2025.

To address environmental concerns, engineers added over a dozen wildlife crossings, elevating sections of the belt so that javelinas, deer, cattle and other animals can pass underneath uninterrupted. By eliminating thousands of truck trips, the system is also improving road safety and cutting emissions in the community. It truly looks like a mega-scale Rube Goldberg machine in the desert – but it works, and has an expected sand supply for 75 years!

How Does Texas Rank? The World’s Longest Conveyor Belts 🌎

Believe it or not, this Texas conveyor is the second-longest on Earth – eclipsed only by one in North Africa.

Here’s a look at the top five longest conveyor systems in the world and how the Lone Star State’s “sand snake” compares:

1. Western Sahara – Bou Craa Phosphate Conveyor (~61 miles) – The undisputed #1, this conveyor system runs 98 km across the Sahara Desert from the Bou Craa phosphate mine to the port of El Marsa (near Laayoune)

2. West Texas/New Mexico – Atlas “Dune Express” (~42 miles) – Our star of the show in the Permian Basin. At 68 km, it’s the world’s second-longest conveyor, built to haul frac sand for oil drilling. Operated by Atlas Energy Solutions, this fully electric belt can deliver sand at high volume, replacing fleets of trucks. Its length and state-line crossing are impressive, but even more notable is an uninterrupted 16+ mile segment – a world-record single flight without booster drives

3. Western Australia – Worsley Alumina Bauxite Conveyor (~31 miles) – This 50 km overland conveyor in Australia was a record-setter when built in 1983. It connects South32’s Boddington bauxite mine (Mount Saddleback) to the Worsley Alumina refinery near Collie

4. South Africa – Sasol’s Impumelelo Coal Conveyor (~16.7 miles) – In Mpumalanga, South Africa, the 26.8 km Impumelelo conveyor transports coal from Sasol’s Impumelelo mine to the Secunda CTL (coal-to-liquids) plant

5. Queensland, Australia – Curragh Coal Conveyor (~12.4 miles) – Rounding out the top five is a roughly 20 km conveyor at the Curragh coal mine in Queensland. Built in 2007 for the Curragh North deposit (then owned by Wesfarmers), it was the world’s longest for several years

(Honorable Mentions: Other giant conveyors include a 17 km India–Bangladesh belt moving limestone to a cement plant, and several 14–20 km belts at iron ore and copper mines in Latin America and Asia. Even airports have long belt systems – Dubai’s baggage conveyor spans 39 miles! But for large-scale mining, the five above are the champions by length.)

🚀 Key Takeaways: Conveyors and the Future of Large-Scale Mining Transport

➤ “Megabelts” drive efficiency: The scale of these conveyors is staggering – moving thousands of tons per hour of critical materials. Such continuous flow boosts productivity and can lower the cost per ton compared to fleets of trucks, especially as fuel and labor costs rise. High initial investment pays off by creating a 24/7 automated pipeline for minerals.

➤ Reducing truck reliance: Each long conveyor can replace hundreds of truck trips per day, easing road traffic and eliminating countless miles of diesel emissions. For example, the Dune Express in Texas is expected to remove a huge number of sand-haul trucks from local roads, improving safety and cutting pollution. Fewer trucks mean fewer accidents, less highway wear-and-tear, and lower CO₂ footprint for mining operations.

➤ Environmental & social considerations: Building overland conveyors isn’t just an engineering project – it’s also an environmental one. Projects must address wildlife crossings, dust control, and community impact. West Texas’s conveyor includes wildlife underpasses for roaming animals, while Morocco’s phosphate belt had to mitigate wind-blown dust over the desert. The payoff is often safer, cleaner transport of materials through remote regions, aligning with sustainability goals.

➤ Engineering marvels: These systems push the boundaries of engineering – from record-length single spans with no booster drives, to belts navigating rough terrain via tunnels and bridges, to smart control systems managing power across multiple drive stations. Innovations in belt strength, digital monitoring, and even renewable power integration (e.g. solar-powered motors) are making ultra-long conveyors more feasible and efficient than ever.

➤ Strategic infrastructure: Ultimately, long conveyor belts have become critical arteries in global supply chains. They connect remote mines to processing hubs and ports, ensuring steady delivery of raw materials that modern industries and agriculture depend on. Whether it’s phosphate rock crossing a desert to feed the world’s farms, or sand and coal fueling energy production, conveyors form the often-unseen backbone of supply logistics. In an era of increasing demand and focus on safety and sustainability, we can expect to see more “conveyor belt highways” weaving across landscapes – quietly revolutionizing how we move mountains (literally!) one mile at a time.