Characterization of Four Petrologic End Members from Alberta Oil Sands and Comparison between Different Mines and Sampling Times

The current research was performed on four petrologic end members samples from Syncrude's North Mine collected in 2012 (NM12), i.e. marine clay (MC), marine sand (MS), estuarine clay (EC), and estuarine sand (ES). The mineralogical compositions of the four petrological end members were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), quantitative XRD (QXRD), elemental analysis, and particle size distribution (PSD) measurements. Bulk samples from the four petrologic end members, after bitumen removal, were mainly composed of clay minerals (kaolinite, illite, chlorite, and mixed-layer expandable clays) and non-clay minerals such as quartz, carbonates, feldspars, and traces of TiO2 minerals, gypsum, and pyrite. Bulk samples of the clay end members were composed of significantly higher amounts of clay minerals and lower amounts of quartz compared with the bulk samples of the sand end members. XRD analysis of oriented preparations (air dried-54% RH and ethylene glycolated) of the < 0.2 µm fractions of the four end members showed that interstratified illite-smectite of high (∼30%) and low (∼10%) expandability were observed only in clay-rich end members, i.e. NM12-EC and MC, respectively. Kaolinite-smectite was only found in the < 0.2 µm fraction of the NM12-MC with an expandability between 5 and 10%. Interstratification of illite-smectite was observed in the < 0.2 µm fraction of NM09-MC and EC samples but the expandability was only 10% for both fractions. However, kaolinite-smectite was not found in the same fraction for NM09-MC and EC. ES and EC had the highest and lowest bitumen contents, respectively, for the NM12, NM09, and AM10 samples. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved