Muskeg River Mine Project

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Shell Canada Limited

• Shell Canada Limited (Shell) is applying to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) and Alberta Environmental Protection (AEP) for approval to construct, operate and reclaim a $1.2 billion oil sands mine and processing facilities on the western portion of Oil Sands Lease No. 7277080Tl3 (Lease 13). Lease 13 is located about 70 km north of Fort McMurray, Alberta and about 500 km northeast of Edmonton. The project, to be known as the Muskeg River Mine Project, involves mining and processing oil sands from the western portion of Lease 13 to produce a diluted bitumen (dilbit) product. The project includes: • a truck-and-shovel mining operation • an extraction plant that uses a warm (45°C to 50°C) water-based, caustic-free ore conditioning and extraction process and a conventional centrifuge froth treatment process, coupled with a paraffinic solvent-based product clean-up unit to meet the low solids and water bitumen specification • a tailings management scheme that uses a tailings settling pond for initial tailings storage, converting to consolidated tailings production and the initiation of in-pit storage after four years • utilities and infrastructure Lease 13 covers 20,182 ha (77 sections) and has a potentially mineable bitumen resource of about 800 million m3 (5 billion bbl). The reserves in the Muskeg River Mine area are assessed at about 200 million m3 (1.3 billion bbl). The targeted production rate from the project area is 8.7 million m3/a (55 million bbl/yr) of bitumen, or 23,850 m3 (150,000 bbl) per day. At this rate, the expected mine life is over 20 years. Bitumen from the Muskeg River Mine will be transported to the Edmonton area via a 610-mm diluted bitumen pipeline. The transportation diluent will be returned to Lease 13 via a 323-mm pipeline. Shell's plan is to build a new upgrader at Scotford, which will produce a range of upgraded refinery feedstocks. The bitumen product will also be suitable for direct-marketing as a bitumen product with low water and solids content.

• Date created

  1997

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Download - 0-0 - Muskeg River Mine Project Volume 1 - Project Description
  • Attached 25 - 6-9 - Alsands 1997 Summer Field Reconnaissance - Flora and Fauna and Traditional Use
  • Attached 11 - 5-3 - Ecological Land Classification Baseline for Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 10 - 5-2 - Aquatic Resources Baseline Study for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 5 - 2-1 - Muskeg River Mine Project Volume 3 Part 2 - Biophysical and Historical Resources Assessment
  • Attached 16 - 5-8 - Forestry Baseline Report for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 13 - 5-5 - Terrestrial Vegetation Baseline for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 1 - 0-1 - Enviromental Impact Assessment Summary for Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 20 - 6-4 - Feasibility Design of Drainage Systems for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 7 - 3-1 - Historical Resources Impact Assessment for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 2 - 0-2 - Muskeg River Mine Project Supplemental Information
  • Attached 14 - 5-6 - Wetlands Baseline for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 24 - 6-8 - Wildlife Habitat Suitability Indices Modelling for the Muskeg River
  • Attached 6 - 3 - Muskeg River Mine Project Volume 4 - Biophysical and Historical Resources Cumulative Effects Assessment
  • Attached 8 - 4 - Muskeg River Mine Project Volume 5 - Socio-Economic Impact Assessment
  • Attached 9 - 5-1 - Hydrogeology Baseline Study Oil Sands Lease 13
  • Attached 23 - 6-7 - Winter Wildlife Surveys Conducted on Lease 13
  • Attached 15 - 5-7 - Wildlife Baseline Conditions for Proposed Muskeg River Mine Project
  • Attached 26 - 7 - Submission of AEP & Alberta Health to Hearing
  • Attached 18 - 6-2 - Lease 13 Surface Water Hydrology 1997 Winter Data
  • Attached 17 - 6-1 - Hydrogeology Winter Work Program Lease 13
  • Attached 19 - 6-3 - 1997 Summer Data Collection Program & Hydrologic & Hydraulic Studies for Muskeg River Mine
  • Attached 3 - 1 - Muskeg River Mine Project Volume 2 - Biophysical and Historical Resources Baseline
  • Attached 22 - 6-6 - Shell Lease 13 Winter Aquatics Field Program
  • Attached 21 - 6-5 - Water Management Plan for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Alberta
  • Attached 4 - 2 - Muskeg River Mine Project Volume 3 Part 1 - Biophysical and Historical Resources Assessment
  • Attached 12 - 5-4 - Terrain & Soil Baseline for the Muskeg River Mine
  • Canada, Alberta, Fort McMurray

• Type of Item

  Report

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3WW7729P

• License

  This material is provided under educational reproduction permissions included in Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development's Copyright and Disclosure Statement, see terms at http://www.environment.alberta.ca/copyright.html. This Statement requires the following identification: \"The source of the materials is Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development http://www.environment.gov.ab.ca/. The use of these materials by the end user is done without any affiliation with or endorsement by the Government of Alberta. Reliance upon the end user's use of these materials is at the risk of the end user.