OIL SAND SLURRY SOLIDS REDUCTION TO ENHANCE EXTRACTION PERFORMANCE FOR PROBLEM ORES

摘要

A process for extracting bitumen from problem oil sand ores having low bitumen content and/or high fines content is provided, comprising: mixing the problem oil sand ore with heated water to produce an oil sand slurry; conditioning the oil sand slurry for a period of time sufficient to substantially disperse oil sand lumps and promote the release and coalescence of bitumen flecks from the sand grains; removing a sufficient amount of solids from the conditioned oil sand slurry in a de-sander circuit; and subjecting the solids-reduced oil sand slurry to gravity separation in a bitumen separation vessel to allow the bitumen to float to the top of the vessel to form clean bitumen froth.