Oil is recovered from mined water-wet oil sand deposits in Alberta Canada. Large amounts of water are used to process the oil sands ore, creating tailings that are very fluid and have a high particle size distribution. These residual fine particles, clays, sands and heavy minerals are stored in large tailings ponds. The talk will be a discussion of the oil sands process and how it relates to tailings, the current state of tailings management including regulations and the challenges that we face. Proper management of such tailings is imperative in order to minimise the impact of the process on the environment.
