Oil sands reclamation: A study integrating mining, tailings disposal and reclamation. Volume III – Yearly cost estimates

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Techman Ltd.
  • Rheinbraun - Consulting GmbH

• The document provides a comprehensive review of the technical problems facing future oil sands developments and suggests options which will be helpful in formulating oil sands mining, tailings disposal and reclamation plans. By providing in-depth cost analysis for many of the activities occurring in an oil sands mining operation, the sensitivity of these activities with respect to reclamation and overall project economics can be assessed. The impact of actions taken to reduce undesirable environmental effects can be measured both biophysically and economically. However, the determination of \"added benefit\" and \"associated cost\" is more complex, with many subjective elements. This study attempts to define not only the methods required to achieve various degrees of reclamation in the Athabasca oil sands, but also to show how the benefits and costs of such reclamation can be objectively measured. Volume III of the report contains yearly cost summaries for the 12 mine plans analyzed in the study. The activities in each mine are grouped into 6 cost centres, which are further divided into cost sub-centres. The division into sub-centres is required to allow as accurate costing as possible and is not intended to break the costs into sub-centres of similar value. The operating and capital costs for 35 years are shown, including five years of preproduction activities and five years of deactivation. The present value cost analysis gives the sum of yearly operating and capital costs discounted at a rate of 10% each year between the date of occurrence and the beginning of the project.

• Date created

  1979

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Alberta
  • Canada, Alberta, Fort McMurray

• Type of Item

  Report

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3R785P5K

• 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.