Muskeg and overburden are first removed to expose the oil sands and are stockpiled for use in reclamation. originally, oil sands were mined using draglines to excavate the face of the formation. Bucketwheels and long conveyor belts moved the raw bitumen to on-site processing facilities.

In the 1980's trucks and power shovels began to replace the bucketwheels and draglines and today, most bitumen mining employs this method.

Oil Sansd Mining

The trucks transport the oil sands to crushers that break up lumps and remove rocks. In a process called the hydrotransport, the oil sand is mixed with water at either 35°C or 50°C, depending upon the mine, and is piped to the processing plant. During the hydrotransport, the bitumen begins to separate from the sand, water and minerals.

Truck and shovel mining is the most commonly used method of surface mining oil sands due to its low cost and high efficiency.

The nature of bitumen requires that its large molecules be split, or “cracked,” into smaller fragments. Adding hydrogen (hydro-cracking) or removing carbon (coking) creates smaller hydrocarbon molecules that are easier to process.

The bitumen upgrading process removes most of the sulphur before the product is shipped to refineries, creating a sweet synthetic crude oil. The petroleum products are sent to a hydrotreater, where chemical impurities and trace metals are removed. This prevents the synthetic crude oil from changing its chemical composition while en route to the refineries.