APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR THE RECOVERY OF BITUMEN FROM TAR SANDS

摘要

The mobile facility and the process are used for mining oil bearing tar materials, such as tar sand, and recovering an oil-enriched product therefrom. Oil bearing materials are mined using a mining head and processed directly into the mobi le facility where an optimum amount of oil-enriched product is removed therefro m. Unlike conventional technologies, only a relatively small amount of solvent is used and most of it is recycled back into the process. The process does not need a tailings pond since the tailings are substantially dewatered at the end of t he process. Further, the tailings are deposited in an adjacent area once they come out of the mobile facility. This significantly reduces the material handling and transport undertaking, thereby allowing the process and the mobile facility to be operated at substantially lower costs compared to conventional technologies.