Silver Spur Energy Services owner Sterling Miller has always been open to new opportunities.
He grew up around equipment and planned to have a career as a diesel technician, but when the chance to go into business with his grandparents presented itself, he jumped on it.
“My grandparents were my biggest role models — great work ethic and real go-getters — and they had a weed-spraying business,” recalled Miller. “When I got out of diesel tech school, my grandpa wanted me to partner with him. He was willing to sign over half the business to me. I said I didn’t want to do that, but I would work my way into it. We worked a deal where I went out and found more business, helped it grow and eventually built it to the point where they could retire.”
While he was expanding the spraying business, Miller kept thinking about fulfilling his dream of working in the dirt. When a major client changed management, it took a good deal of the spraying business away. Miller saw the downturn as an opening.
“It really pushed me into dirt work, so I bought a backhoe and started beating the bushes to find work,” said Miller. “I did a lot of helping with pit lining. I was living in Slaton, Texas, at the time and traveled anywhere I could to find work. Some of the jobs lasted three or four days, and sometimes I slept in my pickup. In 2015, the opportunity came along to buy out another contractor that had a lot of good contracts and some solid things in its portfolio, so it was a good move.”
Miller spent a fair amount of time working in the Permian Basin, which is where he met Wes Hughes, who owned Silver Spur Energy Services. In 2016, he bought Hughes out and began operating all of his business under the Silver Spur Energy Services name. Based in Ackerly, Texas, the company provides earthwork services predominantly to the oil and gas industry, building roads and ponds, drilling site locations, and doing remediation and trenching. It also operates four hard rock mines that produce caliche, as well as crushed rock and other materials.
“When I bought Silver Spur, one of its major customers had just sold to another company and the new one had a really aggressive drilling program,” remarked Miller. “We worked with them, and that allowed us to grow at a very rapid pace. We tripled in size in just over a year. We now have about 65 people and do everything from planning a site with customers’ engineers to changing out a fire tube to building gigantic mega pads.”
Damp sand facility opens
The Permian Basin was at the forefront of fracking in the oil and gas industry, but for many years, the abundant sand that’s a major part of the area’s landscape was considered unsuitable to fracking, so millions of tons of material were shipped in at a substantial cost. That’s changed during the past few years with the increased use of local damp sand, which created another new opportunity for Miller. He teamed up with Hughes and Clayton Weaver to found West Point Silica near Big Spring, and he noted that he is willing to haul damp sand as far as a customer needs it.
“Wes called me about three years ago asking if I was interested in starting a sand operation, and I said nobody really wanted the sand here because it’s not the right grain,” remembered Miller. “Not long after that, I could see others were beginning to use damp sand, so I called him and asked if he was still interested. He was sitting on the side of a mountain in Mexico at the time, hunting deer. Without hesitation, he said yes. I told him I would get to work.”
Construction has been nonstop since West Point Silica’s groundbreaking in 2023. With a staff of about 60, the mine runs four plants and produced more than 1 million tons last year. Miller expects to beat that by a good margin in 2025.
“There was nothing here but raw land when we started,” revealed Miller. “We purchased the land and went to work building roads, a bridge, pond systems and all the associated dirt work for setting up the plants. I wasn’t sure about this at the start, but it’s proven to be a good deal.”
Equipment from KSM speeds up production
Miller relies heavily on equipment from Kirby-Smith Machinery Inc. (KSM) in both Silver Spur Energy Services’ and West Point Silica’s operations, including Komatsu dozers, excavators, wheel loaders and haul trucks, a KLEEMANN crusher, and Masaba stackers.
“I think anybody who runs equipment would agree that you have to have a dealer and personnel at that company who stand behind their product and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep customers up and running,” stated Miller. “Kirby-Smith has been our partner for a good long while. We started with Komatsu equipment, and because Kirby-Smith has taken such good care of us with service like Komatsu Care, we added the KLEEMANN and Masaba. Everyone we have ever dealt with there has been great to work with and will go to bat for you, including our new rep Zac Jarrett who’s doing a phenomenal job.”
Silver Spur Energy Services and West Point Silica utilize Komatsu intelligent machine control (IMC) dozers, including D155AXi, D85EXi and D71i models.
“We’ve always tried to be on the cutting edge of technology, and the IMC machines really made sense for us, especially with the fully integrated GPS,” commented Miller. “It’s cut a lot of time out of our processes when you can set up different surfaces and just go. If there are any adjustments, the operators can make them from the cab. We use the D71 predominantly for spreading material on building locations and pads, as well as fine tuning. It’s a versatile machine. The bigger dozers are great for hogging mass amounts of dirt on larger pads and ponds to get to grade faster.”
To strip topsoil and overburden, as well as load HM400 articulated trucks that are hauling from pit to plant at West Point Silica faster, Miller recently added a 204,148-pound, 543-horsepower Komatsu PC900LC-11 excavator with a 96-inch bucket.
“It’s the perfect-sized machine for our needs and a huge step up production-wise as it’s cut our cycle times way down,” emphasized Miller. “It’s solid all around. It’s extremely powerful, and it’s well balanced. For a big machine, it’s very nimble. We can normally load a truck in three passes, so we can crank them out in a hurry. We can then use our standard WA500 wheel loaders and WA500 yard loaders to get from the piles to the plants and load trucks with finished products.”
Silver Spur Energy Services uses its KLEEMANN MR 130 EVO impact crusher with a 496-tons-per-hour capacity as a primary crusher at one of its pits. West Point Silica utilizes Masaba 150-foot stackers to stack material at varying heights.
“The KLEEMANN is a beast,” declared Miller. “We can make multiple materials by changing the screens and jaw placement. It’s versatile. We tried some others and felt the KLEEMANN had a better design. I think the Masaba stackers are far superior to others too. It’s a gear-driven stinger, so there are no cables. You can build different pile designs, which is extremely important if you’re trying to dry material or when running base and need to keep the mix consistent through the stockpile. Serviceability is near zero.”
Focus remains on service
Miller and his partners are working on their next moves, but they have no concrete plans at this point. What he does know for sure is that the focus on providing solid customer service will not change.
“Our core customers have been working with us for a long time, and our loyalties go both ways,” said Miller. “We have a lot of good relationships, and it’s imperative to us to maintain those. Our biggest goal is to provide customer service and products that people can depend on. When it comes down to it, we will stick with it until the job’s done no matter if it’s in the rain, sunshine, day or night.”
Miller and his wife, Shelley — who helps with both businesses — are passing that work ethic and adage on to their sons, who Miller hopes will take over one day.
“They are already dedicated to dirt construction and mining, and they want to spend every moment they can around it,” shared Miller. “I see a bright future for Silver Spur and West Point — and for them, if this is what they truly choose to do.”
*The opinions expressed here are from the end user as quoted. The results described herein are those of these end users under certain conditions. Individual results may vary.
###
