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EVALUATION OF THERMAL PROPERTIES OF OIL SAND FLUID FINE TAILINGS
Session: Mining Geotechnique I / Géotechnique minière I
Kathryn Dompierre, University of Saskatchewan (Canada)
Lee Barbour, University of Saskatchewan (Canada)
Syncrude Canada Ltd. has developed the first end pit lake in the oil sands region at their Mildred Lake Mine site. The end pit lake, referred to as Base Mine Lake, was constructed within a mined-out pit, and incorporates 186 Mm3 of fluid fine tailings (FFT) below an 8 m water cap. Fluid fine tailings are deposited at elevated temperatures, and act as a heat source to the overlying lake. The thermal properties of the FFT must be defined to evaluate the long-term thermal regime within the tailings and lake. Samples were collected from Base Mine Lake at various depths. Select samples were chosen to represent a range of oil contents, and pore water salinity. Water was added or removed from each sample to create multiple tailings sub-samples of varying water content. Thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of each sub-sample was measured with a KD2 Pro Probe, and this dataset was analyzed to determine the influence of water content, oil content, and salinity on the thermal properties of FFT. Thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity values were similar to those estimated using theoretical relationships for the thermal properties and water content, when volumetric oil content was taken into consideration.
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