Extraction+Processes

**Oil Recovery**
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There are two ways to recover oil from oil sands: In Situ and Mining

**Mining**
Mining is used for [|bitumen] close to the surface of the earth (75m and higher)

-Also called Open Pit Mining

-Electric and hydraulic shovels and trucks are used to dig up bitumen

-These new methods introduced in the 1990s considerably improved the efficiency of tar sands mining, thus reducing the cost

-Bitumen is loaded into enormous trucks that can carry up to 320 tons of tar sands per load

-Materials are separated from bitumen in hot water

-“Wastes” are sent to tail ponds while the bitumen goes on to be processed



**In Situ**
In situ is used for bitumen that is no longer available for practical mining (deeper than 75m)

-Steam, solvents or thermal energy make the bitumen flow to the point that it can be pumped by a well to the surface

-There are steam injection, solvent injection, and firefloods, in which oxygen is injected and part of the resource burned to provide heat

-So far steam injection has been the favoured method

-Fairly new technology