Influence of clay minerals on the storage and treatment of oil sands tailings

摘要

This paper discusses the properties of clay minerals in oil sands tailings and how they influence the storage and treatment of fine tailings (MFT). Containment of fluid fine tailings in bitumen production requires a large footprint, and the industry is making considerable effort to reclaim the tailings ponds into natural closure landscapes. The volume of fine tailings stored in the ponds is directly related to the amount of clay minerals processed with the oil sand ore. The clay mineralogy is dominated by kaolinitic and illitic minerals with significant amounts of mixed-layer kaolinite-smectite and illite-smectite. The bulk and surface properties of clay minerals, the pore water chemistry, and residual bitumen all influence the degree of segregation in the tailings ponds and the dewatering of polymer-flocculated MFT.