Tailings Disposal Challenges and Prospects for Oil Sands Mining Operations

The tailings produced from using water to extract the bitumen from oil sands operations in Alberta, Canada, are deposited in ponds behind dykes. Several types of tailings accumulate in large ponds, including coarse tailings and fluid fine tailings generated from the main extraction processes, and froth treatment tailings generated when bitumen is cleaned. These ponds pose significant geotechnical and geo-environmental challenges during tailings disposal and for site reclamation. The main concerns are related to the slow consolidation and slow strength gain of tailings, the quantity, quality and fate of process-affected water, and the long term safety of dykes. This article recalls and discusses some of the key challenges related to tailings management technologies and identifies some prospects for the future, based on the main observations from a report recently produced by an expert panel for the council of Canadian academies.