U.S. patent application number 15/962908 was filed with the patent office on 2018-12-06 for blending mined oil sand ores for bitumen extraction operations.
The applicant listed for this patent is SYNCRUDE CANADA LTD. in trust for the owners of the Syncrude Project as such owners exist now and. Invention is credited to MICHAEL CARNIATO, RON CLEMINSON, DAN WOLFE.
Application Number | 20180347333 15/962908 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 64459344 |
Filed Date | 2018-12-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20180347333 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
CLEMINSON; RON ; et
al. |
December 6, 2018 |
BLENDING MINED OIL SAND ORES FOR BITUMEN EXTRACTION OPERATIONS
Abstract
A process and process line for mining and blending a plurality
of different grade oil sand ore is provided comprising forming an
open stockyard for blending and stockpiling the different grades of
oil sand ore, whereby the blending of the different grades of oil
sand ore is managed by haul trucks dumping the different grades of
oil sand ore at a dispatched coordinate either on the perimeter of
the stockyard or in the stockyard pit.
Inventors: |
CLEMINSON; RON; (Fort
McMurray, CA) ; WOLFE; DAN; (Edmonton, CA) ;
CARNIATO; MICHAEL; (Calgary, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
SYNCRUDE CANADA LTD. in trust for the owners of the Syncrude
Project as such owners exist now and |
Fort McMurray |
|
CA |
|
|
Family ID: |
64459344 |
Appl. No.: |
15/962908 |
Filed: |
April 25, 2018 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
62515399 |
Jun 5, 2017 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E21C 41/31 20130101;
E21B 43/29 20130101 |
International
Class: |
E21B 43/29 20060101
E21B043/29 |
Claims
1. A process line for mining and blending oil sand ore, comprising:
a plurality of shovels for mining oil sand ore at least two
separate mine faces, wherein at least one shovel is mining oil sand
at a first mine face and at least one shovel is mining oil sand at
a second mine face; a plurality of haul trucks for receiving oil
sand ore, whereby at least one haul truck is receiving oil sand ore
from a shovel mining at the first mine face and at least one haul
truck is receiving oil sand ore from a shovel mining at the second
mine site; an open stockyard for blending and stockpiling the oil
sand ore, where blending of oil sand ore is managed by each haul
truck dumping at a dispatched coordinate on a perimeter of the
stockyard; and a device which moves the oil sand ore from the
perimeter of the stockyard into the stockyard to form at least one
stockpile of blended ore.
2. The process line as claimed in claim 1, the open stockyard
further comprising a shovel for removing the blended ore from the
stockpile to a mobile primary crushing station.
3. The process line as claimed in claim 2, wherein a bucketwheel is
used to remove blended ore from the stockpile and deliver to the
mobile primary crushing station.
4. The process line as claimed in claim 3, wherein the relocatable
crushing station comprises an integral rock crusher and discharge
conveyor.
5. The process line as claimed in claim 2, the open stockyard
further comprising a second conveyor for receiving the crushed
blended ore from the primary crushing station and delivering the
crushed blended ore to a slurry preparation plant for preparing and
oil sand slurry.
6. The process line as claimed in claim 5, wherein the slurry
preparation plant is relocatable.
7. The process line as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a
screening assembly for screening the oil sand slurry to form
screened slurry.
8. The process line as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a
solids removal assembly for removing additional solids from the
screened slurry.
9. The process line as claimed in claim 8, wherein the solids
removal assembly comprises a semi-mobile desanding assembly.
10. A method for blending at least two different oil sand ores,
each oil sand ore having a different grade, comprising: providing
at least one haul truck for each oil sand ore for delivering the
oil sand ore to a designated area; mapping out a grid on the
designated area indicating locations where each ore sand ore is to
be deposited by each haul truck; and mixing the oil sand ore in the
designated area to form a stockpile comprising a substantially
uniform grade of blended oil sand ore.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the designated area
is a stockyard having a pit and the blended oil sand ore is stored
in the pit until needed.
12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising
reclaiming the blended oil sand ore in the pit by means of a
shovel.
13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising crushing
the reclaimed blended oil sand ore in a crusher located in the
pit.
14. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising conveying
the crushed reclaimed blended oil sand ore to a slurry preparation
unit.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to mining technology and, in
particular, decoupling real-time mining of oil sand ore from
bitumen extraction operations to enable favorable oil sand ore
blending by using a stockyard where blending and storing of oil
sand ores can occur.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Oil sand ore, such as is mined in the Fort McMurray region
of Alberta, generally comprises water-wet sand grains held together
by a matrix of viscous bitumen. Typically, a "low grade" oil sand
ore will contain between about 6 to 10 wt. % bitumen with about 25
to 35 wt. % fines. An "average grade" oil sand ore will typically
contain at least 10 wt. % bitumen to about 12.5 wt. % bitumen with
about 15 to 25 wt. % fines and a "high grade" oil sand ore will
typically contain greater than 12.5 wt. % bitumen with less than 15
wt. % fines. "Fines" are generally defined as those solids having a
size less about 44 .mu.m.
[0003] Oil sand lends itself to liberation of the sand grains from
the bitumen, preferably by slurrying the oil sand with heated
water, allowing the bitumen to move to the aqueous phase. For many
years, the bitumen in the McMurray sand has been commercially
removed from oil sand using what is commonly referred to in the
industry as the "hot water process". In general terms, the hot
water process involves dry mining the oil sand at a mine site that
can be kilometers from an extraction plant; transporting the
as-mined oil sand in large ore trucks to a primary crushing plant;
conveying the crushed ore to a slurry preparation plant where the
oil sand is mixed with hot water, caustic (e.g., sodium hydroxide)
and naturally entrained air to yield an oil sand slurry;
"conditioning" the oil sand slurry (for example, in a
hydrotransport pipeline) so that lumps of oil sand are ablated or
disintegrated, the released sand grains and separated bitumen
flecks are dispersed in the water where the bitumen flecks coalesce
and grow in size, and the bitumen flecks may contact air bubbles
and coat them to become aerated bitumen; and removing the bitumen
froth from the slurry in an extraction plant comprising one or more
separators (for example, a primary separation vessel or PSV).
[0004] Currently, most oil sand mining operations use trucks and
shovels to mine the oil sand ore from the mine face and transport
the mined ore to a primary crusher/slurry preparation plant. To
date, most primary crushers and slurry preparation plants are
fixed, i.e., not readily relocatable. In the applicant's mining
operation, the average haul distance is currently 4-5 km. However,
future ore bodies would require truck hauls of 10-20 km to existing
primary crusher locations. Thus, the costs of mining will be
increasing due to the long distances and outward migration of
mining faces away from fixed plants. The reliance on "on-time
delivery" of ore from haul trucks and the need to apply appropriate
ore blending prior to slurry preparation makes it ever more
difficult to manage costs. Hence, the truck and shovel mining
operation may suffer from lower productivity due to these two
constraints.
[0005] Under present operations, oil sand ore blending occurs in
"real time", i.e., when the haul trucks unload the ore into the
primary crusher. This is done to ensure a continuous supply of ore
to the slurry preparation plant. Since most crushers can only
accommodate two truckloads (payloads) of ore at a time, one can
only achieve a 50-50 blend of two ores. However, there are
instances when further blending would be optimal to achieve the
desired processability of the ore. Thus, the extraction operation
suffers from lower recovery due to less than optimum ore
blending.
[0006] In the face of ever-increasing presence of poorer ore
grades, ore blending has become even more important to maintain
acceptable bitumen recovery rates. However, as currently practiced,
mining productivity suffers because of the increased demand for
improved ore blending. Thus, there is a need in the industry for
improved ore blending without sacrificing mining productivity.
[0007] In addition, under present operations, trucks are often
queued up to make sure the right blend of ore is obtained. However,
this can result in wait times of up to three minutes or more which
may result in a loss of up to 200,000 payloads of opportunity.
Thus, there is a further need in the industry to decouple the
mining operation from the extraction operation to avoid wait times
for haulers to dump their load.
[0008] Finally, the present invention allows for the placement of
haul destinations closer to the active mine area.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The present invention is directed to a process and process
line that effectively decouples `real-time` oil sand ore mining
from bitumen extraction operations to enable quality oil sand ore
blending. Thus, the present invention may result in one or more of
the additional benefits: lower capital costs; lower operating
costs; lower relocation costs; compact and readily placed `in-pit`;
and minimal construction area lead time (i.e. no civil
mega-projects).
[0010] In one aspect, a process line is provided for mining and
blending oil sand ore, comprising: [0011] a plurality of shovels
for mining oil sand ore at least two separate mine faces, wherein
at least one shovel is mining oil sand at a first mine face and at
least one shovel is mining oil sand at a second mine face; [0012] a
plurality of haul trucks for receiving oil sand ore, whereby at
least one haul truck is receiving oil sand ore from a shovel mining
at the first mine face and at least one haul truck is receiving oil
sand ore from a shovel mining at the second mine site; [0013] an
open stockyard for blending and stockpiling the oil sand ore, where
blending of oil sand ore is managed by each haul truck dumping at a
dispatched coordinate on the perimeter of the stockyard; and [0014]
a device which moves the oil sand ore from the perimeter of the
stockyard into the stockyard to form at least one stockpile of
blended ore. Hence, once the at least one stockpile is formed, the
blended ore from the stockpile can be continuously fed to a primary
crusher for crushing prior to oil sand slurry preparation at a
slurry preparation plant. The at least one stockpile is then
continuously replenished with new ore being delivered by the haul
trucks.
[0015] In one embodiment, it may be desirable to have the stockyard
located at or near the mine face. In this embodiment, it is
preferable that the primary crusher is a semi-mobile crusher. In
one embodiment, the slurry preparation plant is also
relocatable.
[0016] In another aspect, a method for blending at least two
different oil sand ores, each oil sand ore having a different
grade, is provided, comprising: [0017] providing at least one haul
truck for each oil sand ore for delivering the oil sand ore to a
designated area; [0018] mapping out a grid on the designated area
indicating locations where each ore sand ore is to be deposited;
[0019] mixing the oil sand ore in the designated area to form a
stockpile comprising a substantially uniform grade of blended oil
sand ore.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0020] Referring to the drawings wherein like reference numerals
indicate similar parts throughout the several views, several
aspects of the present invention are illustrated by way of example,
and not by way of limitation, in detail in the following figures.
It is understood that the drawings provided herein are for
illustration purposes only and are not necessarily drawn to
scale.
[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of one embodiment of the
process line of the present invention.
[0022] FIGS. 2A and 2B are schematic depictions of oil sand ore
blending according to the present invention.
[0023] FIGS. 3A and 3B are aerial and side views, respectively, of
a stockyard according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0024] FIGS. 4A and 4B are an aerial view of a stockyard according
to another embodiment of the present invention and a map
illustrating where four different oil sand ores are to be placed on
the perimeter of a stockyard according to the present invention,
respectively.
[0025] FIG. 5 is an aerial view of a low complexity stockyard of
the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0026] The detailed description set forth below in connection with
the appended drawings is intended as a description of various
embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to
represent the only embodiments contemplated by the inventor. The
detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of
providing a comprehensive understanding of the present invention.
However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the
present invention may be practiced without these specific
details.
[0027] As used herein, "semi-mobile" equipment refers to equipment
that is designed to be relatively easy to relocate (i.e.,
relocateable) but which generally does not move on a regular hourly
or daily basis as mobile shovels and trucks do.
[0028] FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the present process
line. In this embodiment, mine face 2 is a mine face in a mineable
oil sand mine or pit. However, it is understood that in the present
invention there are at least two mine faces that are being
excavated at the same time, each mine face being located in
different locations within a mine pit. A mining shovel 3 is used to
excavate the oil sand ore at the mine face 2 and it is operative to
advance along the mine face 2 and deposit the as-mined oil sand ore
into mobile trucks 4. The mobile trucks 4 deliver the as-mined oil
sand ore to a common stockyard 5 where the oil sand ore is blended
to provide a substantially homogenous mixture of the oil sand ores
from the at least two mine faces (stockpile). Blended oil sand ore
is then excavated from the stockpile using shovel 6 and delivered
to a mobile crushing station 7.
[0029] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the mobile crushing
station 7 generally comprises a receiving hopper, an integral rock
crusher and discharge conveyor that is movable under its own power
and may receive and comminute excavated/mined oil sand ore from a
shovel. A metal detection system may be installed on the discharge
conveyor of the mobile crushing station, and a kick-out mechanism
may be used to dump the portion of crushed ore containing metal on
the ground, rather than transferring it to conveyor 8. Conveyor 8
receives the comminuted oil sand ore from the discharge conveyor of
the mobile crushing station and delivers the comminuted oil sand
ore to compact slurry plant 10 which comprises a semi-mobile slurry
preparation unit 9. In this embodiment, the semi-mobile compact
slurry preparation unit 9 is a wet crushing unit as described in
Canadian Patent No. 2,480,122. Semi-mobile compact slurry
preparation unit can be moved by means of tracks 11, so that the
entire unit may periodically be advanced to a new location. It is
understood, however, that any semi-mobile, relocatable slurry
preparation unit or assembly can be used. Thus, the oil sand slurry
preparation step can be moved as close as possible to mine face 2,
i.e., in-pit or near-pit crest.
[0030] Oil sand slurry prepared in the semi-mobile compact slurry
preparation unit 9 can then be transported and conditioned in
hydrotransport pipeline 28. Hydrotransport pipeline 28 is generally
around 3 km in length, its length being sufficient to ensure proper
conditioning of the oil sand slurry. Thus, hydrotransport pipeline
28 receives oil sand slurry from semi-mobile compact slurry
preparation unit 9, transports the slurry while simultaneously
conditioning it, and, optionally, delivers the conditioned slurry
to a screening assembly 40 for removing a portion of the coarse
solids, in particular, clay lumps and rocks, therefrom. Screening
assembly 40 comprises a slurry screen for scalping/removal of
wear-inducing lumps in the conditioned slurry down to a nominal
size (e.g. about 12 to 15 mm and larger is removed). Screening
assembly 40 may be relocatable by means of tracks 27. In one
embodiment, the screening assembly 40 may be positioned further
upstream, i.e., along the hydrotransport pipeline 28, before the
oil sand slurry is fully conditioned. There may be instances where
it is more desirable to remove the clay lumps and rocks as soon as
possible, so there will be an optimal screening assembly location,
where oil sand lumps have been ablated just below the screen cut
size, for example, 1.5-2.5 km from the start of the hydrotransport
pipeline 28.
[0031] The screened slurry 28 can optionally be further desanded
using a semi-mobile solids removal assembly 29 for removing coarse
sand therefrom. In one embodiment, semi-mobile desanding assembly
29 comprises a near pit desander (NPD), or separator, as described
in Canadian Patent Application No. 2,809,959. In this embodiment,
NPD is moveable by means of tracks 37. It is understood, however,
that other moveable desanders or desanding circuits can be
used.
[0032] The semi-mobile desanding assembly 29 produces a relatively
clean (i.e., relatively free from bitumen) coarse solids underflow
31, which only needs to be transported a short distance to sand
storage 32. The reduced solids upper zone or overflow 30 comprises
bitumen, fines and water and is amenable to long distance transport
through a pipeline to a bitumen extraction plant for
polishing/water reheat and return. It was discovered that desanded
oil sand slurry could be pumped long distances, has a lower power
constraint and produces low wear on downstream equipment.
[0033] Operating cost for a slurry pumping system is relative to
the mass transported. Thus, by removing 70% to 90% of the solids,
the required energy, wear and capital costs all decline
significantly. The resulting de-sanded slurry is also much easier
to transport over long distances. The desanding vessel would be
optimally located near the tailings deposition area, which may be
an exhausted mine pit, to minimize the total transport distance of
the coarse solids. In addition, by removing much of the sand prior
to bitumen extraction, a higher quality and lower solids product
would be delivered to extraction facilities. This would result in a
higher residence time in separation vessels (such as existing PSVs)
due to a reduction of flow rate, as a large fraction of flow has
been diverted at the desander. In turn, this would result in
bitumen yield uplift, as product quality is improved down the
entire process stream.
[0034] One embodiment of oil sand ore blending is described in more
detail with reference now to FIGS. 2A and 2B. In this particular
embodiment, four different oil sand ores, each being of a different
grade, have been excavated from four distinct mine faces within a
mine pit and delivered to stockyard 205. Stockyard 205 comprises a
dug out pit 244 and a bench 246. As shown in FIG. 2A, haul truck
204 is hauling oil sand ore 240, which has been excavated from a
first mine site, and dumping its payload to form ore pile 242 on
bench 246. As shown in FIG. 2A, there are three additional ore
piles comprising three different ore types, namely, ore pile 242',
ore pile 242'', and ore pile 242''. Once piles are formed, each
pile comprising the appropriate amount of particular oil sand ores
for optimal blending to occur, the piles are then moved from bench
246 by bulldozer 248 into pit 244 to form blended oil sand ore 250.
Blended ore is continuously stockpiled in pit 244 to form a
stockpile 252 of properly blended ore.
[0035] With reference now to FIGS. 3A and 3B, FIG. 3A is an aerial
view of a stockyard 305 of the present invention and FIG. 3B a side
view of a stockyard 305 of the present invention. In this
embodiment, oil sand ore is blended by free dumping the various oil
sand ores directly into a stockyard pit. Stockyard 305 comprises an
elevated bench 346, which is designed to support haul trucks 304 so
that the haul trucks can dump oil sand ore directly into pit 344
for blending and retaining ore received from the haul trucks 304 as
stockpile 352. In this embodiment, elevated bench 346 is about
eight (8) meters high. Haul trucks 304 are responsible for
delivering a particular ore from a particular oil sand face and
dumping the particulars ores in a defined sequence. in this
fashion, the ores are blended together to form a substantially
uniform stockpile 352 in pit 344. By way of example, the haul
trucks can deliver 60 payloads of four different oil sand ores and
dump the ores in a 20-15-15-10 split to obtain the desired oil sand
ore blend.
[0036] Also present within the stockyard 305 is shovel 306 for
excavating stockpile 352 and delivering the blended ore to a
primary crusher 307, which is shown in FIG. 3A to be a two track
mobile sizer. The crushed blended ore is then conveyed on conveyor
308 to a compact slurry preparation plant 310 where oil sand slurry
is formed. In another embodiment the stocked ore is reclaimed using
a bucketwheel or similar near-continuous stockpile reclaim system
which discharges to a feed rate stabilizing hopper prior to
conveyance into the slurry preparation facility.
[0037] It is understood that more than one stockpile can be present
in a given stockyard. For example, FIG. 4A shows stockyard 405
which comprises two elevated benches, 446, 446', for receiving
various ores from haul trucks 404, for forming two stockpiles, 450,
450'. In this embodiment, a single conveyor 408 could be used for
feeding blended ore to the slurry preparation plant 410 from both
stockpiles 452, 452'. For example, stockpile 452 could be reclaimed
by extraction, while the mining operation rebuilds stocked ore
volumes in stockpile 452' unfettered and to a set blending
proportion. While in this embodiment the conveyor bisects the pair
of stockpiles to offer a simple partitioning effect, nevertheless,
numerous pile shapes, ore partitioning, and conveyance linkage
schemes can be rationalized.
[0038] FIG. 4B is a close-up view of an example "cluster" of
sixteen truckloads of four different oil sand ores which may be
placed on the perimeter of the stockyard, e.g., on a raised bench
and the like, for optimal ore blending. In the alternative, the
four different oil sand ores may be dumped directly into the
stockyard pit 444. The particular pattern as shown in FIG. 4B
assures proper blending of the four particular ores, however, it is
understood that other patterns may be preferred, depending on the
grades of the four different oil sand ores. Thus, where a haul
truck destination of as mined oil sand ore is specified to an open
stockyard, the haul truck is then slated to dump the ore at a
dispatched coordinate on the perimeter of the stockyard, where the
blending of oil sand ore is then managed by forming a stockpile in
the stockyard by bulldozing the dumped ore into the stockyard pit.
By implementing a large enough stockyard, the `real time`
interaction of mining and ore processing is measured in days rather
than minutes typical of oil sands mining operations.
[0039] In particular, FIG. 4B shows multiple ovals, each oval
representing where a particular oil sand ore should be initially
deposited. In FIG. 4B, there are four different types of ovals
representing four different grades of oil sand ore mined from four
different oil sand faces, namely, 442, 442', 442'' and 442''. When
all of the ore positions have been filled with the appropriate ore,
the multiple ores are blended together to form a single stockpile
of a substantially uniform grade of ore. While FIG. 4B shows an
even blending pattern, with 25% of each ore grade, it is understood
that where different proportions of each ore are optimal for
blending, this can easily be achieved through properly dispatched
dumping of haul trucks in the appropriate locations on the
bench.
[0040] FIG. 5 illustrates a low complexity stockyard of the present
invention that employs both types of oil sand ore blending
described above. For ease of illustration, the stockyard has been
broken into individual zones 1 to 6. Zone 1 is shown to be empty
and ready for delivery of oil sand ore. Zone 2 shows oil sand ores,
ore 542' and ore 542'', being dumped from haul trucks 504 on
elevated bench 546 directly into pit 544, where blending occurs.
Zone 3 shows ore blending occurring by dumping loads of different
oil sand ores, i.e., two loads or ore 542a, one load of ore 542b
and one load of ore 542c, on the perimeter of bench 546 where the
loads will then be bulldozed into the pit 544, resulting in blended
ore. Zone 4 shows completed stockpile of blended ore that is now
ready to be shoveled using shovel 506, crushed using crusher 507
and conveyed on conveyor 508 to slurry preparation unit 510. Zone 5
is now excavated and ready for additional oil sand ores to be
delivered. Zone 6 shows oil sand ores being dumped from haul trucks
504 on elevated bench 546 directly into pit 544, where blending
occurs, thereby replacing the ore that has already been removed for
slurry preparation.
[0041] Thus, in the stockyard as shown in FIG. 5, about 40% of the
stockpile is free-dumped and the remaining 60% is readily dozed
with a short, mostly horizontal push. In one embodiment, there will
be fifteen or more aisles open for dumping and up to 500 payloads
storage capacity.
[0042] In summary, potential benefits of the present invention may
include: [0043] Multiple dump locations enable fully optimized,
well averaged blending of ore from mining; [0044] Standard
equipment can be used; [0045] Unleashes shovel and ore haul
productivity; Shovel & trucks not constrained to the real time
production rate of hydro transport; eliminates `just on time`
constraints on mining operation; [0046] Reserve ore (reclaimable
when haul trucks are hindered due to inclement weather); [0047]
Simplification of civil works allows system to be positioned, and
re-positioned, much closer to the mining face, thereby providing
shorter haul distance.
[0048] From the foregoing description, one skilled in the art can
easily ascertain the essential characteristics of this invention.
However, the scope of the claims should not be limited by the
preferred embodiments set forth in the examples, but should be
given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description
as a whole.
* * * * *