Regulatory and policy expectations for reclamation and closure of oil sands tailings Dr. Brett Purdy, Clean Energy Policy Branch Alberta Environment &

Regulatory and policy expectations for reclamation and closure of oil sands tailings

Dr. Brett Purdy, Clean Energy Policy Branch

Alberta Environment & Sustainable Resource Development

Photo courtesy of Suncor Energy Inc.

… reclaim so that soils and landforms are capable of supporting

• a self-sustaining, locally common boreal forest

• integrated / sustainable surface drainage

• natural appearances

Tailings reclamation objectives are not unique …

Tailings have already been reclaimed …

… more tailings have been reclaimed than any other part of the mine footprint to date …

… the Roadmaps identify pathways to make the “challenging” tailings ready for reclamation …

... do “ready for reclamation” tailings technologies / criteria support “reclamation and closure” objectives” ?

While innovation and commercialization pathways are identified in the roadmaps … we need to ask the question …

Unique challenges for reclamation of tailings …

Landform cap & soil placement

Ecosystem development

Landform design

Surface water & groundwater interactions

CTMC Tailings Roadmap OverviewTailings Technology Project Roadmap Update

OSTC/COSIA AI-EES / CTMC

GE Innovation Centre

August 28, 2012, Calgary

Presentation outline

Project scope

Project process

Project results

Project scopeIn 2011, Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions & the Oil Sands Tailings Consortium awarded a contract to the Consortium of Tailings Management Consultants (CTMC) to produce “The Technology Deployment Roadmap and Action Plan for ‘End-to-End’ Solutions for Oil Sands Tailings.”

The CTMC summarized and assessed 549 technologies and produced a set of roadmaps for the most promising of these technologies & suites.

This presentation is a summary of the CTMC June 2012 final report.

To create a technology deployment roadmap and action plan that will assist regulators and industry to create and implement technology solutions that will meet specific tailings management and reclamation goals

Project objective

Component 1Compile state of practice, describe existing technology suites, & compile full list of technologies

Component 3Evaluate opportunities, technologies, identify data gaps

Component 2Develop assessment criteria

Component 4 Highlight & prioritize technologies through a development roadmap

Methods: Component 1Seek out the widest range of potential tailings technologies

Summarize technologies

Define technology categories

MiningExtraction

Tailings deposition

and capping

Tailings processing

Certification

Water treatmentReclamation

Exploration

Assign stage of development

Research

PilotPrototype

Commercial

Development

Create master list of technologies549 Technologies

101 Unique Technologies

+15 Chemical Amendments

+18 water treatment technologies

Detailed log of fate of every technology and all vendor communications

State of practice: Commercial tailings practice review

Individual tailings technologies are combined to form feasible commercial technology suites specific to each mine

Current state of practice and existing technology suites well documented in report

Captured the major constraints and influences on tailings management – every site at every point in time is unique

Methods: Component 2Identify End Goals

• Desired tailings management and reclamation end goals

• Related constraints and assumptions

Identify Assessment Criteria

• Stage of technology

• Technical feasibility

• Reliability

• Ability to scale up

• Reclamation potential

• Other practical indicators

Methods: Component 3Define assessment guidelines for each of the seven tailings categories

Develop tool to assist in data analysis of technologies

Assemble multi-disciplinary teams of experts to evaluate technologies

Evaluate technologies against C2 criteria, recording comments and ideas for improvement too

Methods: Component 4Highlight technologies that would improve existing technology suites

Highlight promising new technologies

Prioritize highlighted technologies

Develop roadmap

Establish big picture context for roadmap

PROJECT RESULTS

An information packed report

Technology framework and database

State of practice captured

Highlighted / prioritized technologies

Roadmaps

Conclusions

Recommendations

7 + 5 Suites identified

Pre-commercial and commercial suites

Conventional tailings

Composite tailings

Thickening

In-line thickening with thin lift evaporative drying

In-line thickening with accelerated dewatering

Water capped end pit lake

Centrifuging MFT with conveyor / stacking

“New” Technology Suites

In-pit tailings treatment and deposition

Non-water based extraction methods

Low-cost

Improvement to water-based extraction

Separate high-fines ore and low-fines ore streams

Priority assessment

Comparison of benefit/risk ratio to cost – to set priority for technology development

(Lower capital and operating costs result in a high cost rating)

High priority technologiesDeposition and capping

T-032: Accelerated Dewatering

T-062: Co-mixing MFT & Overburden*

T-090: Vertical Drains

T-099: Stacker Hydro-cyclones

T-188: Under-Drained Tailings*

T-510: Tailings Discharge Tremmie

Reclamation

T-138: Water Capped MFT Lake

T-550: Tailings Surface Sealants**

* restricted application

** very limited use

Extraction

T-024 / T-548 Alberta Taciuk Process / Retort Based Extraction

Tailings processing

T-060: MFT Spiked Whole Tailings*

T-069: Solid Bowl Scroll Decanter Centrifuge

T-085: Thermal Drying*

T-197: Super CT

T-208: Paste thickener

T-267: Froth Treatment Tailings Thickening*

T-529: Oleophillic Sieve

A description of the technology suite

Improvement opportunities and gap-filler technologies

Technology deployment table for each technology

Tailings Technology Deployment Roadmaps

Instead, highlighted is the need for …

different suites of technologies for

different operators with

different conditions with

different legacies at

different times

ConclusionsThere is no silver bullet…

Every site is unique

There are significant opportunities to refine existing technology suites, including through more focussed management activities

New technologies take time to develop:

Research (2 to 3 years)

Development (2 to 5 years)

Commercial implementation (5 to 10 years)

Nine tailings technology deployment roadmaps were developed….

Improvement opportunities for new and existing technologies

Applicable technologies identified

Development status mapped to identify future steps for R&D

Operations / management

Review water management practices and opportunities

Remove roadblocks between companies

Examine regional opportunities for waste treatment, including solids, fines, water and byproducts

CTMC recommendations

Technology assessment

Implement a formal assessment framework for new technologies

Standardize testing methods

Evaluate the range of chemical amendments

Research

Develop enhanced monitoring techniques for slurries in pipelines and deposits

Development

Evaluate methods to reduce the mass of fines delivered to extraction by mining operations

Evaluate the potential for creating separate extraction processes for high fines and low fines ore streams

Revisit retort-based and solvent-based extraction methods

Revisit the processing of froth tailings to reduce its potential environmental impacts

Roadmaps

Assess roadmaps for individual operations, and generate detailed R&D plans where required

Expand to include mining, extraction and reclamation technologies

Plan and budget to keep the roadmaps and technology database current

Having delivered our report, the CTMC’s mandate is complete and the consortium has disbanded.

The OSTC/COSIA and AI-EES now how the task to evaluate the results, and develop plans. CTMC member companies and individuals are available to support this next phase of development.

The document provides both a snapshot in time of the oil sands industry, through the lens of tailings management. It is a valuable resource not just to the industry, its regulators and stakeholders, but to also has application to the mining industry worldwide.

Moving on

CTMC Leads

Aaron Sellick, Richard Dawson (Norwest )

Bill Chin, Brett Stephens (Klohn)

Gord McKenna, Phillip LeSueur (BGC)

Darcy Cowan, Irwin Wislesky, Les Sawatsky, Sue Longo (Golder)

Dave Sego (University of Alberta Geotechnical Group)

Mickey Davachi (AMEC)

Jeremy Boswell, John Sobkowicz (Thurber)

Secondments

Al Hyndman, Bill Shaw (Total)

Blair Penner, Sean Wells (Suncor)

Rick Sisson (CNRL)

Ted Lord (ERCB)

Plus very importantly…

Expert discipline participants in the C3 sessions

Junior engineers, drafters, and admin staff at each of the organizations

Illustrations by Derrill Shuttleworth

Expert participants

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Tailings Roadmap Study Follow-up Plan

August 28th News Release Event

Alan Fair

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Develop and deploy Tailings solutions faster

Oil Sands Tailings Consortium

Formation of the Oil Sands Tailings Consortium –OSTC - December 2010

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Tailings Roadmap Study

The Study identified 549 technologies with potential use for oil sands. Included 89 vendor technologies Reduced to 101 unique technologies (plus technology

variations and enhancements)

TRS Vol. 2, Table 2.1

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Follow-up Action Plan for 48 Highlighted Technologies

16 Technologies are included in current or planned OSTC/COSIA projects

14 Technologies will be considered by Technical Working Groups

8 Technologies will be considered by OSTC/Member companies

8 Technologies are out of the current scope of the OSTC/COSIA Tailings EPA

2 Bitumen Recovery Technologies will be evaluated through a joint industry AI-EES initiative

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Final Comments

Industry is committed to:Sharing the information necessary to progress the

development of oil sand tailings technologiesWorking with government and Third Party

Technology Developers to develop and implement tailings technologies that will ensure that oil sand tailings are successfully reclaimed on a timely basis.

The Tailings Roadmap Study report can be accessed at: www.cosia.ca and www.ai-ees.ca

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Questions?