Process for extracting bitumen from tar sands

摘要

This invention provides a process for the recovery of bitumen from mined tar sands that comprises admixing mined tar sands with a hydrocarbon liquid such as light crude oil or a mixture of light crude oils from a nearby reservoir thereby obtaining a bitumen-hydrocarbon mixture mixed with sand, separating the bulk of said bitumen-hydrocarbon mixture from the sand as a liquid, and recovering the remainder of the bitumen-hydrocarbon mixture using chemical waterflooding techniques.