Open Collections

Oil sands tailings management projects : low return, business critical

Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (2015 : Vancouver, B.C.); University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

In 2014, Independent Project Analysis (IPA) led Alberta’s first industry research study on the performance of oil sands tailings management capital projects. Although the industry has organized extensively to investigate and share technology strategies for tailings management, the implementation of those strategies through capital projects had not been previously evaluated. The research study findings suggest that Alberta tailings projects still have a long way to go in terms of maximizing their value for business. The key findings from the research study, which include a cost-capacity model for benchmarking the base capital cost of an oil sands tailings management project, are presented here. Most importantly, we describe the root cause of ineffective investments in tailings management facilities and assets: business’ failure to prioritize these projects and provide the time and resources required for capital effectiveness. Further, we explore the importance and implications of capital effectiveness in oil sands tailings management investments. Although waste management and compliance projects deliver no direct financial return to the bottom line, the indirect returns yielded from the effective and responsible delivery of tailings management assets are critical to staying in business in the 21st century.

Text

2017-02-01

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/59631

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/