Estimation of fines and solids content in tailings oil sands deposits is imperative for tailings planning as well as reporting tailings inventory to the regulator. This report reviews the development of a proper procedure for the engineering assessment of uncertainty in reported tailings mass/ volume as a function of data spacing.
Industry recommended practices for estimating fluid tailings volumes and tailings performance, in response to the 2009 Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) Directive 074 (D074). The scope of best practices focuses on four areas: Fines measurement, FFT volume determination, deposit characterization, sampling and geostatistics.