NEWS 2019

Posted March 5, 2019

Event: March 19, 2019

GSE/NAIT Student Event: Dr. Heather Kaminsky, P.Eng., NAIT, and Dr. Nicholas Beier, P.Eng., U of A - Oilsands Tailing Management

Location: 10304, 10524 - 117a Ave NW, Room 191, Center for Applied Technology (CAT), NAIT
Google Maps to CAT Building at NAIT NAIT Campus Map (PDF) CAT First Floor Map (PDF)

Time: 11:30am Registration, 12:00pm Lunch, 12:20pm Presentation

Cost: $15 Members/Non-Members, $10 Students
An additional $5 will be charged for payments made at the door.

Please register for this event using the form below by March 15, 2019.

The oil sands industry has an environmental footprint of 220 km2 in northern Alberta, representing $21 billion in reclamation liabilities. Albertans and the global community are concerned with the scale and impact of developing this vital resource. They demand that proven sustainable technologies be developed and implemented to reclaim and replenish the land that has been disturbed by mining and the associated waste repositories. Managing fluid fine tailings (FFT) generated during the extraction process has become a significant environmental challenge. In lieu of tailings management regulations set forth through the Alberta Government and increased public awareness, industry has stepped up efforts to improve their tailings management practices. Several technologies have been investigated to dewater and subsequently reclaim the FFT tailings deposits with varying degrees of success. These initiatives aim to transform the FFT into sustainable components of a reclaimable, closure landscape. The presentation will outline the challenges with managing oil sand tailings and current/planned tailings dewatering technologies aimed at resolving these challenges.

Dr. Heather Kaminsky currently works at NAIT's Center for Oil Sands Sustainability where she leads the Mining research team. She has a Ph.D. and B.Sc. Co-op in materials engineering and has over 7 years of expertise in advanced ore characterization, fundamentals of tailings, water treatment and the impact of clay minerals on oil extraction and tailings. Heather was the chair of the Clay Focus Group for both the Canadian Oil Sands Network for Research and Development (CONRAD) and Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA). She is passionate about finding a solution to tailings issues in the oil sands industry. This passion has earned her the moniker "Queen of Clay".

Dr. Nicholas Beier is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, and the Principal Investigator of the Oil Sands Tailings Research Facility. Nicholas has a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Geoenvironmental Engineering and has over 10 years experience related to mine waste management. His research interests include waste management in cold regions, characterizing the engineering behaviour of oil sand tailings, tailings dewatering technology development and simulation modelling for evaluation of mine waste management technologies.

Registration is closed for this event.