Canadian natural resources oil sands mining and upgrading. Typically a truckandshovel operation, oil sands is excavated from the mine pit using hydraulic or electric shovels. The recent alberta energy resources conservation board directive 074 requires oil sands waste disposal planning to be an integral part of mine planning. In general, unconventional forms of oil including oil sands mining are becoming important in global energy supply due to decreasing reserves of conventional oil. Teck resources frontier oil sands project shows reckless. Executive summary this paper discusses the key issues facing development of the oil shale and tar sands resources in.
Base operations millennium mine surface mining 294,000 1967. Adaptive management and the geotechnical observational method amwg. In late 2017, the phase 3 expansion was completed at horizon, the final step in the companys transition to a long life low decline asset base. Oil sands mine planning and waste management using goal programming. Alberta oil sands industry, 2016, remaining oil in place and proved oil reserves. Request pdf integration of oil sands mine planning and waste management using goal programming mine planning is the backbone of all mining enterprises. Generating initial production targets serve as a guide for detailed mine planning.
Recent environmental and regulatory requirements also makes waste. The applications are for approval to construct, operate, and reclaim an oil sands mine and processing plant 110 kilometres north of fort mcmurray, alberta. Integration of reclamation and tailings management in oil. Fully 85% of oil sands was produced as raw bitumen in 2017, a proportion which will gradually fall to 57% as highervalue upgraders are built to process it into lighter grades. The water management plan is discussed in volume 1, section 7 of the project.
Qi et al creep and structuration in tailings and in natural clays. Sgs minerals services t3 sgs 898 2 geotechnical services media stability, compaction and permeability. Frontier oil sands mine project update impact assessment agency. This document presents for public discussion a draft strategy for oil sands mine development and environmental management. The project includes an open pit mining operation and associated infrastructure that is required to supply oil sands to new bitumen froth production facilities and deliver bitumen. Mixedinteger linear programming milp is used as the optimization tool. Oil sands tailings ponds are engineered dam and dyke systems used to capture oil sand tailings. Oilsands mining began in the region in 1967 with suncor energy then great canadian oil sands, followed by the startup of syncrude canada ltd. The international energy agency has warned that expanding canadian production hinges on transportation capacity. Requirements for oil sands mine and processing plant operations. University of alberta geotechnical group, edmonton. Cnrl files application to integrate joslyn north into horizon mine plan.
This is especially important during sitespecific planning. Actual production and projected production in year 2040 from surface mining and in situ extraction wykes and heywood, 2010. The horizon oil sands include a surface oil sands mining and bitumen extraction plant, complemented by onsite bitumen upgrading with associated infrastructure to produce high quality sco. Moreover, bgc is an industry leader in the development and implementation of oil sands closure planning and landform design, a. However, the same authors incorporate the hierarchical clustering by. Vulcan enviewer pdf vulcan enviewer allows users to view, interrogate and present vulcan information. The openpit mine currently delivers an average of 300,000 tonnes of oil sands per day to the extraction plant. Newman colorado school of mines august 18, 2008 if you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano topthat comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or more technically bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Development of utah oil shale and tar sands resources. In oil sands mining, timely provisions of ore and tailings containment with less environmental footprints are the main drivers of profitability and sustainability.
The simple objective of any good winterization plan is to protect people and assets from cold weather hazards. Constraints unique to oil sands mine planning are identified and their impact on the oil sands mine planning system are documented. Criteria and indicators framework for oil sands mine. Oil sands are a mixture of bitumen heavy hydrocarbons, water, sand, and fines. Abstract the syncrude canada limited mine has been in operation for the past ten years, producing synthetic crude oil from the oil sands with a consistently upward trend in production each year. A conceptual mine planning framework based on a goal programming model for oil sands production scheduling and waste management is presented. Oil sands land use and reclamation natural resources canada.
The models consider stockpiling with limited duration in production scheduling. Fawcett et al operational water qualitybased strategies for successful oil sands mine closure. Pdf a twostep approach to incorporate cutoff grade and. Subzero temperatures in central and northern alberta extend from october to late may. Oil sands mine planning and waste management using mixed. The impacts of challenging waste handling and storage requirements and a uniquely prescriptive regulatory environment defining mineable ore are identified as key constraints. Constraints unique to oil sands mine planning are identified and their impact on. Systems activity models of both the conventional and unconventional systems are developed in support of documenting and contrasting the two systems. Tailings planning is a fully integrated process involving mine planning, containment design, water management, progressive reclamation, and closure planning. Strategic mine planning and waste management are important aspects of surface mining operations. A guide to audit and assess oil sands fluid fine tailings. Get access to our complete database of historical oil and gas prices, energy statistics and oil sands production data. The current tailings management framework tmf was developed by alberta environment and parks under the lower athabasca regional plan and implemented in 2015. Significant financial risks confront tecks frontier oil sands mine.
Other oil sands lease rights in the project vicinity. Percentage of the total footprint of disturbed land from all oil sands mines that is reclaimed, as reported by oil sands mine operators. Benawuah and askarinasab 15 also use fuzzy cmeans clustering to create mining units for oil sands production planning. Are reports of canadas oil sands demise greatly exaggerated. An automated production targeting goal programming framework for oil sands mine planning considering organic rich solids maremi et al. Pdf an automated production targeting goal programming. Bitumen recovery is additionally adjusted based on the. Mine planning, reclamation, tailings, mathematical programming, oil sands introduction openpit mining is used to extract nearsurface oil sands reserves in northern alberta. Manual scheduling scenarios should be executed by new planners to allow. February 2016 the future of the canadian oil sands. Burden and wilson codisposal in the oil sands blending of fft with overburden.
Analysis and system modeling of conventional and oil sands applications, a thesis submitted to the robert m. Environmental consequences of oil production from oil sands. Third, oil sands deposits decline more slowly 4% decline per year than those of conventional oil 20% per year, allowing these deposits to last longer e. Due to the difference in depth, recovery of oil sands ore calls for different techniques. A holistic approach to mine planning 6 this study took the concept one step further by incorporating the schedule and landform together in order to make a seamless mine plan including all factors from mine production, truck scheduling, rehabilitation, stockpiling and final landform. Due to the limitations in lease area for oil sands mining, the pit phase advancement is carried out simultaneously with the construction of inpit and expit tailings impoundment dykes. The dataset is maintained by the lands and minerals sector, natural resources canada, and is a subset of information available on map 900a principal mineral areas. Production scheduling and waste disposal planning for oil. Mined oil sands normally contains from 7 to % bitumen by weight. Due to the limitations in lease area for oil sands mining, the pit phase.
Tailings production and capacity of tailings facilities are included in the model. For the mining of oil sands, the mine is equipped with four draglines, four bucketwheel. These two oil sands processes techniques are described in more detail below. Due to the limitations in lease area for oil sands mining, the pit phase advancement is carried out simultaneously with the construction of in. Provincial regulations guiding the management of oil sands tailings have been in place since 2009.
Pdf on jan 1, 2005, d whittle whittle and others published strategic mine planning find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. In achieving maximum benefit in oil sands mining, the time and sequence of removing ore, dyke material and waste from the final pit limit is essential to the longterm production schedule. Proponent is proposing to develop the base mine extension project the project to sustain the supply of bitumen to the existing upgraders at suncors oil sands base plant operation base plant. Executive summary overview oil sands operators are currently developing and employing technologies to manage fluid fine tailings fft. Tecks frontier oil sands mine project, which is now before the canadian. Public disclosure document march 2008 a utsteck cominco joint venture. The vulcan oil sands module is tailored to meet oil sands requirements in geologic modeling, reserving, and mine design. Tecks plan to sell oil sands product to asian markets is unrealistic. Industryreported oil sands mine reclamation and cumulative land disturbance12. A twostep approach to incorporate cutoff grade and. Material requirement for reclamation and associated costs are considered in modeling. Mine planning is the backbone of all mining enterprises and determines the profitability or otherwise of any mining investment. Pdf in achieving maximum benefit in oil sands mining, the time and. Every oil sands facility needs a bulletproof winterization plan.
Reclamation of boreal forest ecosystems following oil. With this method, manual incremental calculations are not typically. Because of their long lifespan and the consequently lower sensitivity to short. Context for using the framework the criteria and indicators framework for oil sands mine reclamation certification the framework is one of a suite of tools that will be used to provide direction and guidance related to oil sands mine reclamation and closure planning, and certification. Frontier oil sands mine project impact assessment agency. Oil sands mines producing mines open government portal. An integrated mine planning optimization framework for oil sands mining is developed.
Submission of oil sands environmental coalition, see submission of chris joseph, swift creek consulting. A hotwater extraction method is used to separate the bitumen from the sand and fines. Providing high quality ore and tailings containment at the right time are the main drivers in oil sands mining. The dbm approach for setting engineering design criteria for an oil sands mine closure plan. Oil sands mines producing mines this dataset provides information related to the principal producing oil sands mines operating in canada during the given reference year.
The accessible ore of oil sands is located 50 to 200 m from the surface. Buchan department of mining in conformity with the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy queens university kingston, ontario, canada september, 2012. Policies and strategies developed in consultation with albertans guide public and private actions that contribute to sustainable resource and environmental management. The oil sands is trucked to the ore preparation plant using large heavy haulers. Request pdf integration of oil sands mine planning and waste management using goal programming mine planning is the backbone of all mining enterprises and determines the profitability or. Direction for conservation and reclamation submissions. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen. Zero values are used for areas where no extraction is expected to occur. Application for an oil sands mine and bitumen processing facility kearl oil sands project decision 20070 errata fort mcmurray area applications no. Reconciliation of asbuilt mine and update ultimate pit design. Vulcan cad pdf vulcan cad provides full design and editing, data importexport, data query and plotting functionality. A mine plan determines the best sequence of block extraction, the production schedule, in. Development of utah oil shale and tar sands resources october 2008 authors.
The twostage approach improves the computational performance of the model. Fifth international oil sands tailings conference, december 47. For the canadian oil sands, debate continues over the industrys environmental impacts and capacity for export. Due to the longevity of a mineable oil sands development, conservation and reclamation planning is to be undertaken throughout the life of the project. Large volumes of tailings are a byproduct of bitumen extraction from the oil sands and managing these tailings is one of. Request pdf oil sands mine planning and waste management using mixed integer goal programming strategic mine planning and waste management are an important aspect of surface mining operations. Fluid fine tailings management methods canadas oil. The optimization framework incorporates waste management in oil sands mining. Why we plan, mine planning stages and activities, maintenance and asset management, importance of technology. Oil sand tailings contain a mixture of salts, suspended solids and other dissolvable chemical compounds such as acids, benzene, hydrocarbons residual bitumen, fine silts and water. Integrated mine planning for the fort hills oil sands project virginia odegaard norwest mine services ltd. Frontier and equinox oil sands mine projects teck resources. Growth potential of a unique resource amidst regulation, egress, cost, and price uncertainty 5 preface this research was conceived with two central objectives.