2024 Tailings Book Club

Suncor Tailings Management Report – 2023

Dr. Heather Kaminsky

June 13, 2024
IMPORTANT SURVEY FOR CEES

Survey on Equipment Capacity for

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We invite you to participate in this ~5-minute

survey to help CEES prioritize our future
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https://nait.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4NGeRpFUcgfX0KG

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
DISCLAIMER & ACRONYMS

• This is a summary presentation of the portions of the company management reports I

found useful.
• Data in this presentation is from 2019-2023 Suncor Company
management reports (Focus on 2023 company management report)
• Intention is to raise awareness of valuable technical resource(s).
• You may quote from the commentary slides (labeled as such), included to spark
discussion though their correctness is not guaranteed. Please let me know of any
errors. Do not quote directly from the rest of the presentation – please see the original
source material.
• Vicky has compiled an acronym list – if you would like a copy, please email
vickyq@nait.ca

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At NAIT, we honour and acknowledge that the land on

which we learn, work and live is Treaty Six territory. This
place is a traditional homeland for the First Nations and
Métis Peoples, and today we are all part of this treaty
land. The traditional name of this place is Amiskwaciy
Waskahikan [a-mis-kwa-CHEE wah-SKAY-gun], which we
also call the city of Edmonton.
I am seeking to better understand the history and lessons
of the land before tailings and to better communicate
what we know about tailings and how we can use all
knowledge to find better solutions.

Numbered Treaties | The Canadian Encyclopedia 4

©Dr. H. Kaminsky
SAFETY MOMENT – FINE TAILINGS
HANDLING (IN LAB CONTEXT)
• Fluid fine tailings are a complex mixture
• Contain microbes
• Contain residual organic materials & petroleum derrivatives
• Contain clays & fine solids
• Depending on source & treatment they can exhibit the following hazards:
• H2S – typically produced in anerobic conditions when provided an additional carbon
source
• Hazardous dust (fine silica, clays = silicosis etc – always wear a dust mask if handling
dry tailings!)
• Naturally occurring radioactive material (like all soils, double check if enrichment has
occurred!)

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
OVERVIEW

1.Regulatory framework
2.What tailings treatment technologies are used?
3.What tailings deposits do they have?
4.How are they doing relative to their approved FFT profiles?
5.How are they doing relative to their approved RTR criteria?
6.What is the site wide water balance?
7.What is the Tailings water quality?
8.Reported Research

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
RELEVANT REGULATORY REFERENCES

• AER. (2023a). OSCA Commercial Scheme Approval No. 8535T. Calgary: Alberta Energy Regulator.
• AER. (2023b). Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, R.S.A. 2000, c.E-12, as amended, Approval No. 94-03-
05. Calgary: Alberta Energy Regulator.
• Measurement plan: 2022 (Not currently available on AER website –2021 Measurement system plan is what is
currently posted)

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
TAILINGS TREATMENT AT SUNCOR
PASS – in line coagulation &
flocculation, deposition to DDA3 for
aquatic reclamation

Approved in tailings plan for 70% of

FFT treatment (524 Mm3).

Increased to 100% of FFT treatment

in 2020 when TRO discontinued. But
Co-disposal of old TRO occurring in
Mine Dump 9.

Water capping not yet approved.

PASS = Permanent Aquatic Storage Structure

DDA = Designated Disposal Area 8
FFT = Fine Fluid Tailings
TRO = Tailings Reduction Operations
More info available: https://www.suncor.com/en-ca/sustainability/innovative-technologies ©Dr. H. Kaminsky
TAILINGS SEQUENCING/WORKFLOW

From 2020 Suncor Company Management report to AER. 9

DDA = Designated Disposal Area
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
TAILINGS DEPOSITS
AT SUNCOR
• Pond 1A – recycle water pond
• Pond 2/3 → Legacy Froth Tailings. Mostly inactive, froth
tailings backup deposition area.
• Pond 5 → legacy CT pond (coke capped + wick drains)
• Pond 6 → legacy CT pond
• Pond 7 → Legacy FFT, includes Legacy FFT from Pond 2/3,
Froth treatment tailings now being deposited.
• Pond 8B – legacy FFT → being emptied for mine out.
• SD8 – Fresh coarse tailings (water & FFT transferred to STP)
(active)
• STP – Whole Tails & FFT from SD8 (active)
• MD9 – comix of TRO material & overburden
• MD9 South - comix of TRO material & overburden
• DDA1 – TRO area
• DDA3 – PASS deposition

DDA = Designated Disposal Area

MD = Mine Dump 10
SD = Sand Dump
STP = South Tailings Pond
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
CT = Consolidated Tailings
SAMPLING LOCATIONS –STP, DDA3, POND 1A

11 sites in STP, 12 in DDA3, 2 in Pond 1A, 14 in pond 7, 3 in SD8, 6 in MD9S 11

©Dr. H. Kaminsky
FFT TO DATE & APPROVED TRAJECTORY

NB: The Ready to Reclaim (RTR) criteria for Suncor was adjusted in 2021. 12
If the original RTR criteria for DDA3 was used Suncor would be at a volume of 288Mm 3 vs 267Mm3
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
PRODUCTION & ORE QUALITY
153 Mt of ore processed in 2023
• 11.3% bitumen, 83.1% solids, 5.6% water
• 24.31 Mt of fines processed
• Fines = 19% fines
14.5 Mm3 of bitumen produced
23Mm3 of FFT treated using PASS protocol
and placed in DDA3
36Mm3 of FFT reduced from legacy
40Mm3 of new FFT generated

PASS = Permanent Aquatic Storage Structure 13

More info available: https://www.suncor.com/en-ca/sustainability/innovative-technologies
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
COMMENTARY SLIDE – FFT INTENSITY RATIO

• Suncor treating slightly more FFT than producing.

• FFT production/bbl of bitumen has increased over the past 4 years
but is more constant on a fines basis.
• Higher fines is expected to produce more FFT, suspect 2021 fines
were more active (higher MBI) than the 2022 and 2023 fines.

Bitumen production numbers for 2015-2019 from ST39 regulatory reports! 14

©Dr. H. Kaminsky
FFT VOLUME & RECLAMATION MILESTONE
PER DEPOSIT

Pond 1A data from 2018, 15

Pond 5 & 6 data from 2019
MD9 Data from 2020
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
WATER VOLUME IN EACH DEPOSIT

• 19.2% decrease in site water

Total volume of Water
(Mm3) 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Pond 1A 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2
volume from 2020 Pond 2/3 2.1 5.8 3.8 4 4 4

• Mainly in Pond 7, DDA3 and STP Pond 5

Pond 6
0
7.1
0
7.3
0
7.3
0
7.3
0
9.5
0
9.5

• River water import volume is Pond 7

DDA 1
42.7
0
33.5
0
36.9
0
35.8
0
32.1
0
28.5
0
below the approved license DDA3 7.4 12.6 17.4 21.6 19.2 16.9
Pond 8B 28.6 10.4 7.3 0 0 0
• Less precipitation than in 2020 STP 26.2 32.1 30.6 36.6 34.9 21.8
SD8 1.7 0.7 0.9 1 0.5 0.5

• Total site water less than in Total 118.00 104.6 106.40 108.50 102.4 83.2

2018

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
STORAGE REQUIREMENTS – NEW TABLE

Note actual storage capacity in 2023 was 492 Mm3 indicating an additional 39 Mm3 of capacity is to be added in 2024 17
– all in DDA3
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
HK COMMENTARY:
TOTAL VOLUME OF FT (RTR + NON RTR)
Available fluid
storage volume
available in
2023: 492

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
HK COMMENTARY - CHANGE IN STORAGE

Total Storage planned to Increase over time, fluctuating slightly year over year in planning, Orange is the Actual
volume available reported that year.
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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
SITE WIDE WATER BALANCE

River water/barrel = 0.81 (down 6% from previous years!) Total fresh water in = 21.6m 3 = 1.5 m3 water/m3 bitumen 20
produced – down from 2.67 in 2020 (less surface water to deal with, also less river water than previous years!)
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
DDA3 PERFORMANCE WITH TIME

RTR Criteria = CWR >0.3 and TSS in

water <500ppm.
TSS of water cap = 7 mg/L
Polymer used = E4993SK

Data from Suncor Company management reports – 2019, 2020 and 2021 21
CWR = Clay-to-Water Ratio
TSS = Total Suspended Solids
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
DDA3 PERFORMANCE WITH TIME-HK
COMMENTARY

Data from Suncor Company management reports – 2019, 2020 and 2021 22
CWR = Clay-to-Water Ratio
TSS = Total Suspended Solids
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
SOLIDS CONTENT PERFORMANCE IN DDA3
2023 VS 2022

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
CWR FOR DDA3 2023 VS 2022

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
SOLIDS FOR STP YEAR OVER YEAR

STP = South Tailings Pond 25

©Dr. H. Kaminsky
STP CWR YEAR OVER YEAR

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
GAMMA TEST RESULTS
• Froth tailings contain elevated levels of naturally occurring
radioactive materials (NORMS).

• NORMS are detectable in passive gamma detection.

• Passive gamma can delineate Froth Tailings areas within ponds.

• A count greater than 60cps indicates potential froth treatment

tailings.

• Past discharge locations for FTT or FTT/FT transfers from Pond

2/3 highlighted with blue arrows.

• Pond 2/3 transfers diluted with other FFT but counts are still
elevated.

• FFT Discharge location for 2023 is highlighted in red

• Only 3 locations had counts below 60cps in Pond 7 in 2023.

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
FROTH TREATMENT TAILINGS- LIGHT
HYDROCARBONS
• Light hydrocarbons are
elevated at pond surface.
• Site 7 is closer to current
discharge location whereas
Site 8 is closer to older
discharge location.

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
• TDS, Arsenic, sodium,
Chloride, and ammonia
exceeded at select sites
• Yellow highlighting indicates
exceedance also reported
in 2021 or 2022 report.
• Blue highlighting = new
exceedance this year.
• Green = exceedance that
went away.
• No Napthenic acid fraction
compound exceedances
noted in 2023

TDS = Total Dissolved Solids 29

©Dr. H. Kaminsky
WATER QUALITY

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
WATER QUALITY – ORGANICS!
Phenols, F1 hydrocarbon & BTEX
are markers for froth treatment
impact. Pond 7 is current
deposition area, with some
deposition in pond 2/3 in 2023.

SD8 is where fresh tailings are

deposited.

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
COMMENTARY SLIDE – METHODS!

• Lots of nuance in water chem measurements – details of

methodology and subsampling are important.
• Presence of solids interferes with many methods – but solid removal
methods may also remove material being measured.
• Would like to see updated measurement reports (AER please post
the new measurement reports!!!).
• Would love to see best practices report from COSIA on subsampling
and measurements of these parameters.

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
MD9 PERFORMANCE
• Flocculated & thin lift placed material from
DDA1 was excavated and co-deposited
with overburden in MD9.
• MD9S is still accepting material – old TRO
mixed with overburden.
• MD9 is in monitoring phase

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
POND 5 PERFORMANCE
Settlement ranged from 0.2 to 1.2ft
• Expressed water from tailings
estimated to be the same as
previous reporting period

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
POND 5 STRENGTH

• Significant strength gain since

capping seen for top 8 m of
deposit
• Even area below VSD is above
6kPa
• Similar strength profile to 2022,
with increases noted in the 10m
&12 m depths.

VSD = Vertical Strip Drains 35

©Dr. H. Kaminsky
RESEARCH UPDATE - 1

• No field trials were performed in 2023

• Continuous improvement activities noted:
• FBRM analyzer implemented online for process monitoring
• NIR analyzers used online for clay measurement
• NIR +FBRM used to develop advanced process control logic
• Higher flowrate of coagulated FT through the polymer injectors resulted in
better quality coagulated-flocculated fluid tailings
• Dredge modifications were completed to improve dredge reliability &
throughput in the presence of debris.

FBRM = Focused Beam Reflectance Measurements 36

NIR = Near Infrared Region
©Dr. H. Kaminsky
RESEARCH UPDATE - CONTINUED
• Reader referred to - 2023 COSIA LAND EPA – Mine & In Situ Research Report
(COSIA, 2024) available at: COSIA-Annual-Report-2023_In-
Situ_Mine_FINAL.pdf (pathwaysalliance.ca)
• Fen creation project completed in 2022 – unclear
• Constructed wetland treatment system – cell D has achieved required cattail
density, cell B looking good but will need more growth, cells A & C will likely
require more cattail transplants before water treatment trials can begin.
• Hydraulic capping of coke for pond 6 – raining in technique being developed,
several small studies were completed with planned trial in 2024. Hydraulic
capping required to avoid dusting and odor issues associated with the placement
methods used for Pond 5.

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
COMMENTARY SLIDE – THE MISSING
MIWASIN
• Research section noted progress update on the operation and
performance of Lake Miwasin were presented to the AER on October
24, 2023.
• No Lake Miwasin PowerPoint slides included in regulatory report.
• Base Mine Lake reports are available in a public depository at UofA,
but nothing is public about Lake Miwasin performance!

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
NEXT TAILINGS BOOK CLUB
July 11, 2024
1:30 - 2:30 pm Presentation
2:30 - 3:00pm Networking

Topic: Syncrude Tailings Management Report (2023)

NEW! Adding a webinar August 8, 2024

Same time & format
Sorry, this means I have
to shift the meeting
Topic: MRM & JPM Tailings Management Report (2023) invites again.

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©Dr. H. Kaminsky
IMPORTANT SURVEY FOR CEES

Survey on Equipment Capacity for

Sustainable Resource Research Services

We invite you to participate in this ~5-minute

survey to help CEES prioritize our future
investments in equipment and infrastructure.

https://nait.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4NGeRpFUcgfX0KG

41
©Dr. H. Kaminsky