EFFECT OF PARTICLE ON THE FLOCCULATION BEHAVIOR OF ULTRA-FINE CLAYS IN SALT-SOLUTIONS

The Athabasca oil sands deposit in Alberta contains similar to 5 x 10( 9) m(3) of bitumen accessible by surface mining. During bitumen separa tion from the mined ore, ultra-fine (<300 nm) aluminosilicate clays on ly a few layers thick (U/F) are mobilized and become dispersed in the process water. In this water containing dissolved salts from natural d eposits, U/F are capable of forming thixotropic gels. The consequence of this is the production of large volumes of mature fine tailings (MF T) with a high water holding capacity. For mine planning purposes, the objective of predicting and possibly mitigating MFT formation require s an understanding of the colloidal behaviour of U/F particles in salt solutions. In this work, photon correlation spectroscopy and the deut erium NMR method are used to provide an insight into the U/F flee form ation process. These results are correlated with conventional analysis of settling data.