Integration of geosynthetics in reclaiming an oil sands tailings pond

Global mining operations produce significant amounts of soil waste referred to as tailings. In oil sands mining, a portion of the deposited tailings is extremely soft and is primarily in a fluid state with solid contents (by weight) ranging between 30% and 40%. As part of reclaiming its Pond 5 oil sands tailings pond, Suncor constructed an engineered “floating” cover on top of the soft tailings deposits between 2010 and 2017 over an area spanning approximately 200 hectares to provide trafficability for limited construction equipment. This initial cover consisted of two layers of geosynthetics overlain by 2 m of petroleum coke. After construction of the initial cover, Vertical Strip Drains (VSDs) were installed through the majority of the capped area to enhance the consolidation rate of the underlying soft tailings. Additional coke has been placed on top of the initial coke cover to a total thickness of 4 m to 6 m. Previous publications have discussed the cover design, installation details of the geosynthetics, installation and performance of the VSDs, and performance of the cover. This paper presents the geosynthetics design, inspection of the geosynthetics post cover construction, and an update on the performance of the coke cover.