local clay? Hahahahaha! You say the funniest things.
If you're after cheap proppant then the cheapest ceramic proppant comes from China! Its manufactured in CHINA using CHINESE CLAY and then SHIPPED SIX THOUSAND MILES ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND THROUGH THE PANAMA CANEL TO THE US. Even after all that shipping Chinese proppant is undercutting Carbo Ceramics----the main US manufacturer.
and what is being postulated is that by using a source immediately proximal to on-going fracking the cost for ceramic propant drops considerably. As with all manufacturing once up and running those costs will continue to decrease for sometime. So whereas it might be cheaper to import now those costs do not offset the advantage of sand...what is postulated is that the costs will drop below any other source.
Get it now?