Tailings
Tailings MISSION
We’re pursuing opportunities to accelerate reclamation of oil sands tailings. Tailings are the sand, silt, clay, water and residual bitumen left over after mining and bitumen extraction.
Effective tailings management is a key component of oil sands operations. Accelerating the reclamation of oil sands tailings will involve developing and sharing best practices and building knowledge on tailings management. We are focused on collaborating with industry and innovators to advance innovative approaches.
Tailings Priorities
The work involves close collaboration with universities, government, research institutes, and others, with a focus on the following priorities:
Managing environmental impact of tailings
Mitigating the accumulation of fluid tailings
Accelerating tailings and land reclamation
What we’re doing
Lab research and field testing supported by COSIA are focused on tailings technologies in several areas.
Reducing tailings volumes
Processes that reduce the amount of tailings left over after bitumen extraction can help benefit all aspects of tailings management.
Reclaim tailings faster
We’re testing approaches that have the potential to reduce the amount of water in tailings before they are used in reclamation. Less water can help tailings be reclaimed faster.
Creating new industry standards
We’re supporting work to develop a better way to measure tailings consolidation. This work has the potential to help address gaps in how industry understands tailings management and could improve environmental performance.
Funding research
COSIA has funded research programs at Carleton University, NAIT and the University of Alberta with the potential to help address important aspects of tailings management.