Oil Sands Geotechnique
Wednesday, September 15
9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Suncor Community Leisure Centre
Cost: $750.00 + GST
Kevin Bigger and Gord McKenna
The oil sands have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into understanding oil sands geotechnique (in mining, tailings, and reclamation) and there is a wealth of information available. There remain many challenges in the areas of geotechnical engineering, engineering geology, surface water and groundwater hydrology, reclamation, and there is still work to be done on the surficial and bedrock geology for new leases.
The course will begin with an overview of the geology of the oil sands, followed by details on how mining is conducted with the intent of understanding how the wastes are generated. Following and understanding of what the wastes are and how they got there, the course will describe conventional and alternative tailings generation, placement and storage, and related geotechnical and geoenvironmental issues. The course will then discuss issues of closure and reclamation as they relate to oilsands wastes geotechnique, to generate an acceptable and sustainable landscape.
The focus on the short course is to expose people to the issues, the work that has gone on before, and the wide breadth of oil sands geotechnique and related disciplines. Key references will be provided as well as copies of all the slides being presented.
09:00 – 09:45 Introduction to oilsands
09:45 – 10:30 Oil sands geology
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee
10:45 – 12:00 Oil sands mining geotechnique
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch – Guest Speaker: Morris Seiferling, Stewardship Commissioner, Land Use Secretariat Presenting Progress on Alberta’s Land Use Framework
1:00 – 2:30 Oil sands tailings and containment
2:30 – 2:45 Coffee
2:45 – 3:45 Oil sands alternative tailings
3:45 – 4:30 Oil sands closure and reclamation
The material covered will be valuable to geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineers, mine operators and managers, environmental specialists and others interested in the opportunities associated with closure, reclamation and mine waste management, professionals working in land planning, and those connected with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).
Presenter: Dr. Kevin Biggar
Dr. Kevin Biggar is a Senior Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineer with BGC Engineering. Prior to joining BGC, he was a professor at the University of Alberta, and spent 12 years working on a variety of oil sands and other mining related research in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Since joining BGC in 2007, he has been working on oil sands tailings storage and management projects.
Presenter: Dr. Gord McKenna
Dr. Gord McKenna has 22 years experience as a geotechnical engineer in the mining industry, including 17 years working at Syncrude Canada’s Mildred Lake oil sands operation in north-eastern Alberta, Canada. He has a PhD from the University of Alberta in Geotechnical Engineering (where working with Dave Sego and Nordie Morgenstern developed the field of landform design). Gord is a senior geotechnical engineer at BGC Engineering in Vancouver and has spent the past five years as a geotechnical consultant to mines in Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and the southwestern US. Gord’s specialties include oil sands geotechnique, mine waste geotechnique, tailings technology development and assessment, landscape engineering for sustainable mine reclamation, and closure planning. Gord was the chair of the CEMA group that prepared the Landform Design Checklist for the oil sands. Gord presently directs BGC’s landform design projects at the Syncrude and Suncor mines. He has presented variations of this landform design workshop to numerous groups over the past 10 years.
Please contact Kyla Marie Arneson at (403) 444-6524 with any questions.
