Paste 2014 – R.J. Jewell, A.B. Fourie, P.S. Wells and D.

van Zyl (eds)

© 2014 InfoMine Inc., Canada, ISBN 978-0-9917905-3-1

Irwin Wislesky Golder Associates Ltd, Canada

Sue Longo Golder Associates Ltd, Canada
Chloe Crossley Golder Associates Ltd, Canada

Recent legislation for the oil sands industry in northern Alberta, Canada requires that legacy tailings deposits
(hydraulically transported slurry, sub aerially deposited into ponds), as well as all future tailings production
must be trafficable − in other words be able to be capped and closed and become part of the natural habitat).
The complexities within the industry in this regard are vast, including production rate, variation in
ore/overburden/bedrock, mining methods, milling and extraction methodologies, site conditions, additional
regulatory requirements, etc. For the past several years, oil sands companies have been pouring millions of
dollars into the development of new technologies/methodologies that will achieve this requirement. More
recently the Alberta Government, in partnership with Industry, initiated a tailings roadmap study to help
identify technologies that could potentially be commercially utilised to address these concerns. A Consortium
of Tailings Management Consultants (CTMC) was awarded a contract by Alberta Innovates – Energy and
Environmental Solutions (AI-EES), to prepare an oil sands tailings technology deployment roadmap. The
intention of the four-part project was to assist industry and Government to identify where best to concentrate
their efforts. This paper discusses the site conditions, evolution of tailings management and possible new
processing and deposition concepts (some are currently used in the mineral industry but not in the oil sands)
that are currently being explored to facilitate the formation of trafficable landscapes and includes a brief
discussion of the tailings roadmap study. It is important to note that although the mineral industry is currently
utilising many of the proposed techniques to address their tailings deposition needs, the oil sands industry
has a historical tendency to develop their own solutions to their unique issues as opposed to looking outside
the province or industry for ideas or best practices.

The oil sands industry is responsible for the largest concentration of mining activity in the world. These
activities require some of the largest and most innovative equipment and processes which are supported by
a vast network of research facilities utilising universities, specialised research facilities and consulting
engineering services, in addition to in-house research within each mining operation. This research has been
greatly supported by the Provincial (Alberta) and Federal governments of Canada. Cooperative efforts have
been ongoing since about 1989 with the formation of the Fine Tailings Fundamentals Consortium and the
publication of a book, Advances in oil sands tailings research, in 1995. In 1994, the Canadian Oil Sands
Network for Research and Development (CONRAD) was founded to promote and coordinate research and
development in technical areas, including oil sands tailings. Members of CONRAD include operators, research
providers, academic institutions, governments and other stakeholders. Through CONRAD, the oil sands
industry supported the University of Alberta’s Civil Engineering Department’s initiative to establish the Oil
Sands Tailings Research Facility (OSTRF) near Edmonton, Alberta, which became operational in 2004.
Additional information on the various oil sands research groups and their formation is discussed in a paper
by Houlihan, Mian and Lord (2010).
Large volumes of tailings are produced in the course of extracting bitumen from the excavated oil sands. The
tailings come in a wide variety of particle sizes from sands to clays depending on the ore source. A portion of
the tailings sands are used for progressive tailings dyke construction. The tailings containment areas are
generally above ground at the start of operations requiring total containment. Tailings are then placed in-pit

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Oil sands tailings: addressing the challenge I. Wislesky, S. Longo and C. Crossley

after sufficient capacity is developed. Large in-pit dykes are constructed to facilitate the continuing in-pit
tailings deposition.
In the early days of mine development the tailings were discharged in a slurry form, sub-aerially. The sands
would settle out close to the dyke and the finer material (primarily clays) would flow into the pond where
they would slowly settle and eventually form a very weak deposit at about 30% to 35% solids by weight.
There are reportedly upwards of 800 million cubic metres (Mm³) of this legacy fine tailings (commonly known
as MFT or mature fine tailings) accumulated in ponds within the various oil sands sites. MFT volume has been
growing at a rate of about 25 Mm³/yr over the past 20 years (interpreted from Houlihan et al., 2010). A great
deal of the research carried out to date has concentrated on the reduction of legacy MFT. In addition,
research has also focused on thickening/dewatering of ongoing tailings production and placement in facilities
that will eventually be sufficiently trafficable to support reclamation, soil placement and re-vegetation.
Trafficability, fines capture and reduction of ponded water are key objectives to the provincial government
directive (Directive 074), along with specific reporting requirements to ensure accountability within the
industry in attaining these objectives.
Creation of trafficable landscapes on tailings areas is not an easy task as a result of the following:
 Extremes in seasonal temperatures, from very cold winters to very hot summers.
 Overall evaporation rates are low and unpredictable, which limits its use as a dewatering
mechanism.
 Feed variability in the ore (size range, clay content and mineralogy).
 Available deposition areas vary at each mine site and often the only areas available are over good
ore deposits (initial deposition sites often require re-handling to access underlying ore).
 Bitumen remaining in the tailings stream can cause major issues with respect to settlement of
solids and accumulation in ponds which are often frequented by wildlife (deterrent measures are
required).
 Water release from the ponds to natural streams is not permitted (even if treated) with the result
that the tailings do not desiccate and densify significantly.
 The process temperature of the tailings stream has an effect on the performance of flocculants.
 Existing ground conditions over which the tailings are deposited are often not trafficable with high
groundwater levels, thick muskeg and soft underlying clays.
 Water continues to accumulate in the ponds as a result of rainfall, water trapped in the tailings
pore space and water inventory required for emergency water supply. This occurs despite the fact
that about 85% of the water required in the extraction process is recycled from the tailings ponds.
As a result of the complex conditions in which the oil sands industry exists, a holistic approach has been
adapted to explore and develop opportunities to handle the large quantity of legacy tailings, as well as
ongoing production. This requires consideration of all stages of the mining operation including development,
mining, transport, processing, thickening, disposal/deposition, water management, treatment, operations
and closure. The major companies involved in oil sands mining have recently agreed to combine forces, pool
their resources and share research in order to facilitate the development of technologies and methodologies
to meet the required objectives as described in Directive 074.

Although dewatering of tailings is a key requirement to obtaining trafficability, it is recognised that many
aspects of the mining and milling process contribute to the ability to dewater the tailings produced and thus,
a holistic approach is necessary. The ability to dewater the tailings is affected by the following:
 fines content

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 overall size range

 mineralogy
 specific gravity
 shape of particles
 material transport methods and distances
 site conditions (weather, overburden, topography, surface area, surface water and groundwater,
etc.)
 extraction process (chemistry, temperature, bitumen recovery, recycle water use, etc.)
 production rate.
During mine planning, the layout of the facility, including the open pit and tailings disposal facilities as well
as the development schedule are key components that can affect the formation of a trafficable tailings
facility. These elements affect the movement of materials (transport distance and methods, potential double
handling), the fines content (through screening processes and selective mining), and available storage area
(in the pit, and on the surface) for tailings and water management. An important aspect of selective mining
is the provision of far more training and focus on operators’ performance. While not a technology
development necessarily, it is a major operational change that the oil sands will need to incorporate going
forward.
The selected extraction process for recovery of bitumen also affects the physical and chemical nature of the
resulting tailings by affecting the particle sizes (separation into fine and coarse fractions), the temperature
and the chemistry (flocculent use, recycle water, potential heat recovery). There are new technologies in
development for water-based extraction processes which would eliminate or greatly reduce the
contaminants and issues that surround the current process in addition there are new technologies looking at
solvent based extraction.
There are several dewatering methods employed in the oil sands industry prior to deposition and these
include:
 thickeners (conventional and paste)
 centrifuges
 cyclones
 co-mingling (mixing materials of different sizes and properties)
 in-line flocculent/polymer or co2 addition (added in the pipeline prior to deposition).
Amongst the above technologies, the applications of these in the oil sands have been limited to date for
various reasons (capital and operational costs, material characteristics, production volumes, implications on
production, overall effectiveness, etc.). Other examples of technologies from other industries under
consideration in oil sands are electro-kinetic dewatering and thermal drying.
There are also several deposition methods utilised (separately or in combination) at the deposition area to
aid in dewatering and these include:
 single point discharge
 multiple spigots
 thin lift drying
 thick lift
 deposition cells

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Oil sands tailings: addressing the challenge I. Wislesky, S. Longo and C. Crossley

 sloped surface
 drainage zones (under drains, lateral drains, toe drains and wick drains)
 alternate fine and coarse layers
 mechanical mixing after placement
 excavation and removal to permanent disposal area
 maintain low pond level
 separate winter deposition area.
These methods affect surface drainage, internal drainage and evaporation, all of which accelerate strength
gain in the tailings. In addition, some of the above methods enhance freeze-thaw which is known to aid in
dewatering. Another of the specific applications that is new to the oil sands is the use of light weight or
floating equipment to traverse and mix the tailings to enhance water release.
Pipeline transport of tailings from the thickener or process plant to the tailings facility is also a very important
consideration in the selection of a dewatering strategy. If the material is thickened too much then pumping
can be an issue or pre-shearing may be required. Devices within the pipe are also required to enhance mixing
when flocculants are added in the pipe. The potential for plugging of lines, as well as issues related to flushing,
drainage and pressure are also important considerations. This is a new area of operation for the oil sands and
will require expertise and experience from outside the industry to deal with the material transport at much
denser consistencies/higher solids contents. The enormous areas required for tailings precludes the
placement of thickeners close to the deposition area for an extended period of time, requiring extensive
pipeline systems with booster stations which would be a change from current operations.
Water management can also have a major effect on the strength gain of the deposited tailings. Discharging
tailings from short beaches into a pond promotes segregation (separation of fines and coarse) and the
creation of additional MFT as the fines settle over time. By maintaining low pond levels and very long
beaches, the potential for segregation of thickened tailings is reduced and fines capture is improved (fines
capture in beaches is of major importance). A low pond also aids in the creation of a downward flow gradient
within the tailings stack. Maximising return water to the process plant would be beneficial in this regard. In
addition, minimising the surface area of ponds reduces the potential liability and effort required to keep
fauna out of the area. However the operational considerations and attention required for maintaining smaller
ponds is a different from current practice and will require a shift in philosophy in oil sands.
Water treatment is also important. Water will accumulate since only about 85% of the water required in the
process is pulled from the ponds. In addition, runoff from precipitation will also continue to add to the water
inventory. As for water management, water ponds have a negative effect on strength gain and fines
accumulation with respect to the directive. It is hoped in the coming years that the government agencies will
begin to be supportive of changing legislation to allow for discharge of water to the environment, providing
water quality expectations are met. As the solid-liquid separation begins to occur before the deposition
process, it will be a challenge to find space to house all the dewatered tailings and the water separately – the
most logical option is to be able to release water into the environment and not store it indefinitely. Several
technologies are required to handle the water treatment needs of the oil sands industry and currently a
gamut of technologies currently used in other industries are being considered for the three main areas of
gross oil/grease removal, inorganic removal and biological treatment.
Tailings management systems have generally been the last concern of mine planners and as a result the
facility design and operational needs are not given adequate attention. Attitudes are slowly shifting for
various reasons to the point where the operators of the tailings disposal system are gaining importance. If
mining/oil sands companies want their operational schemes to actually be achieved then the first step is to
include the operators in the discussion and to utilise highly skilled operators i.e. at the same level as those in
the mill or extraction plant. Any operator will tell you it is much easier to run a more fluid system – the thicker

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the material the more problems they may have. If the first option for an operator is to add water to “make it
easier” then the system will never achieve the design intent. The operators need to understand and buy-in
to the philosophy and be part of the solution, after all, it is not the consultants, the researchers or the mine
managers pushing the “go” button. In addition, if oil production always governs, then tailings management
systems are set up to fail. The integration of tailings system designers and operators at the mine planning
stage and throughout development is key to understanding the integration of all mining activities and setting
up effective synergies.
Closure of a tailings facility requires consideration in the planning and operational phases of a tailings disposal
facility. Since these facilities need to be trafficable soon after closure, it is important that the bulk of
consolidation settlement has occurred prior to closure. This is required to provide sufficient strength to
support equipment to construct the ultimate cover. This is affected by the physical and chemical
characteristics of the tailings in conjunction with how well the tailings have dewatered. In addition there are
different closure methodologies that need to be considered for terrestrial versus aquatic/wetland
environments as well as new bioremediation technologies being investigated for oil sands applications.

The current efforts in the industry are concentrated on thin lift drying, in-line flocculation, thickeners,
cyclones, centrifuge and mixing of various streams of material (fines and coarse and other waste streams).
Chemistry is also beginning to play a larger part in the development of improved dewatering and strength
gain characteristics.
Tremendous focus has been applied in the above noted areas for years and yet the industry still does not
have a definitive answer to the tailings management problem. With the breadth and depth of tailings
management options available globally and the recognition by industry and government that they don’t want
to “miss anything” the Oil Sands Tailings Technology Deployment Roadmap Project was born.
The Alberta Government employed a consortium of engineering consultants, who, along with personnel from
the oil sand industry and government agencies set about to identify and review existing technologies,
developing technologies and technologies currently in the research phase. A key aspect of the assignment
was the understanding that tailings management is not a stand-alone system, but part of an overall mining
project. It is affected by everything from mine layout, mining methods, ore variability rate, processing,
material transport, disposal, water management, filling, construction, reclamation, closure, etc. The need to
integrate the entire mine project into the development of effective tailings management is of major
importance.

When the Alberta government put out the Request for Proposal it was recognised amongst the oil sands
tailings consultant community that no one company or group would have the ability to meet all the
requirements of the project. The overall objective of the Tailings Roadmap Project was:
“to create a technology deployment roadmap and action plan that will assist regulators and
industry to create and implement technology solutions that will meet the goals of Alberta
Environment’s (AE) Tailings Management Framework and the ERCB’s Directive 074 and, in
particular, the long-term reclamation objectives (stable, reclaimable, sustainable, and
acceptable).”
With this objective in mind, the consultants set aside competition, in favour of collaboration, in much the
same way as the oil sands company had agreed to co-operative sharing of resources and knowledge. The
consultant groups joined together to create the Consortium of Tailings Management Consultants (CTMC).
Seven respected firms that all worked in and around tailings management of the oil sands got together to
develop and execute the project.

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Oil sands tailings: addressing the challenge I. Wislesky, S. Longo and C. Crossley

The project included four components: Component 1 (C1) compiled an extensive list of technologies currently
used, or with potential use in the oil sands industry, including piloted and research technologies; Component
2 (C2) developed a set of Tailings Management and Reclamation (TMR) objectives and sub-objectives to
evaluate the technologies; Component 3 (C3) developed the evaluation methodology and conducted the
technology evaluations based on criteria from C2, to identify gaps, opportunities, and possible
improvements; and Component 4 (C4) developed road maps using the evaluation results from C3 as well as
the C1 data and reports, aimed at improving tailings management practices from mining through to final
remediation and closure.
One of the key areas of definition in the C1 phase came around the mining life cycle – 7 distinct areas were
identified that helped target and isolate technologies so as to effectively categorise them. In the past, with
the reams of data and information available on technologies, there had been no way or means to organise
them in one list so that the industry and government could effectively evaluate their options. The life cycle
categories developed are as follows:
 mining
 extraction and bitumen recovery
 tailings processing
 deposition and capping
 water treatment
 reclamation
 technology suites.
Within each category, the buffet of tailings options was laid out so that after the initial offering of 500+
technologies the final list across all categories came out to a little over 100 unique technologies that could
be available for deployment. Subsequent to this, it was also highlighted that all technologies were not alike
in the amount of data or information available. Since this would have an impact in the C3 evaluation phase,
the technologies were also categorised into levels of maturity: commercial, development and research.
The other area of clarification came in the C2 phase where the definition of criteria for evaluation of the
technologies was examined. The Tailings Management Framework and Directive 074 objectives were to be
the basis of the evaluations however these objectives were very broad and needed to be distilled down into
item by item criteria that could be quantified. This was accomplished in two ways – top down whereby the
criteria themselves were directly related to the objectives and the bottom up approach where the criteria
were developed using the experience of the consultants as to “what was important in evaluating tailings
options”. Interestingly there was much overlap and when cross referencing the two lists, it proved that all
objectives had multiple criteria associated with them.
In C3, the premise was that a sustainability matrix was to be used to evaluate all technologies – technological,
environmental, social and economic criteria were used and for the purposes of the evaluation all elements
were weighted equally. As a result, it was clear from the outset that there were no “fatal flaws” i.e., no criteria
or element for which a technology could be eliminated from further consideration. This was an important
premise because the idea of identifying a roadmap means that some technologies can be employed in
particular circumstances for particular gains and do not unto themselves need to meet all the criteria
perfectly. To this end, the different levels of maturity were evaluated slightly differently – the criteria did not
necessarily change but the availability and credibility of information was quite different between categories.
In the end, the commercial technologies were evaluated on the merit of their known performances;
development technologies were evaluated on their potential to move into the commercial zone and the
research technologies were evaluated on their potential to be a “gap filler” in another existing technology or
as an application in a new life cycle area.

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In C4, the main objective was to take the evaluations and the technologies and build Technology Suites – a
complimentary grouping of technologies across the mining life cycle that could comprise the plan for a
company in managing their tailings.
The main deliverables coming out of the Roadmap Project were:
 an information-packed report
 a technology framework and database
 the state of practice captured – the first of its kind in the oil sands
 an evaluation methodology that could be continually utilised as new technologies came to the
forefront
 highlighted/prioritised technologies
 roadmaps.
The key conclusions coming out of the Roadmap Project were:
 There is no silver bullet – no one solution was or is going to work across the site specific
circumstances facing the different operations, thus multiple Roadmaps or Suites were identified.
 When talking of a problem of this magnitude, no one can do it alone – the expertise brought to
bear from industry, government and consultants was truly unique and should be a model for
other pesky issues plaguing tailings practitioners around the globe.
It is clear that there is not just one path to success. However the path has become much clearer for industry,
government and consultants in the oil sands because of the cooperation and sharing that occurred in this
project.

It is true that there are many gaps in the efficiencies of dewatering oil sand tailings. Although the desired
characteristics of tailings can be engineered, there is a lot of room left for technological improvements to
existing technologies, development of new technologies and methodologies, and the development of new
management strategies. The path forward clearly lies in the ability of industry and governments to pool their
existing knowledge, expertise and funds, since the timeline for success is not very long.

Houlihan, R.H., Mian, M.H. and Lord, E.R. (2010) Oil sand tailings – technology developments and regulations, in Proceedings 13th
International Seminar on Paste and Thickened Tailings (Paste 2010), R.J. Jewell and A.B. Fourie (eds), 3–6 May 2010, Toronto,
Canada, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 423–437.

Ahmed, M., Labelle, M., Brown, R. and Lahaie, R. (2009) Paste pumping and deposition field trials and concepts on Syncrude’s
dewatered MFT (centrifuge cake), in Proceedings 13th International Conference on Tailings and Mine Waste, 1–4 November
2009, Banff, Canada, pp. 417–427.
Longo, S., Francoeur, R., Labelle, M. and Wislesky, I. (2011) Oil sands dewatering – can it be done? in Proceedings 14th International
Seminar on Paste and Thickened Tailings (Paste2011), R.J. Jewell and A.B. Fourie (eds), 5–7 April 2011, Perth, Australia,
Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 213–224.
Longo, S., Francoeur, R., Labelle, M. and Wislesky, I. (2010) Tailings dewatering in the oil sands, in Proceedings 2nd International Oil
Sands Tailings Conference, D. Sego and N. Beier (eds), 5–8 December 2010, Edmonton, Canada, University of Alberta
Geotechnical Centre, Edmonton, pp. 43-51.
Wislesky, I., Longo, S. and Sego, D. (2012) Oil sands tailings technologies assessment and evaluation, in Proceedings 3rd International
Oil Sands Tailings Conference, D. Sego, G.W. Wilson and N. Beier (eds), 2–5 December 2012, Edmonton, Canada, University
of Alberta Geotechnical Centre, Edmonton, pp. 213–219.

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