Employing effective soil handling strategies to meet reclamation targets in Alberta's Athabasca oil sands region

摘要

This paper describes the role that effective soil handling strategies play in promoting successful reclamation in Alberta's Athabasca oil sands region. As oil sands developments continue to expand the need to promote effective reclamation planning early in the life of mine becomes integral to successfully meeting reclamation targets. Establishing and maintaining well considered soil handling practices throughout mine development and operation ensures soil quality is maintained and adequate reclamation material is available for the life of mine.Effective soil handling must begin with realistic and achievable material balance calculations. Often mine development projects run into costly reclamation scenarios due in part to unrealistic reclamation material estimates. Potential reclamation material balance shortfalls and potential soil quality degradation are compounded by the relatively large scale and long life of oil sands mines. Soil handling plans should start from the base precept that reclamation planning be more closely tied to achievable life of mine material balances. Reclamation material estimates accuracy benefits from being more mindful of project-specific limiting conditions and operational feasibility, as opposed to stamping an ultimate footprint on a map and running basic calculations. More often than not, material balances do not take into account 'real world' factors that impact reclamation material salvage. In this regard, the material balance and soil handling plan must allow for reconciliation based on actual reclamation material recovery rates.