Compact slurry preparation system for oil sand

Staged crushing combined with water addition and mixing is practiced at the mine site to prepare an oil sand slurry ready for hydrotransport. More particularly, as-mined oil sand is crushed to conveyable size (e.g. -24″) using a mobile crusher. The pre-crushed ore product is conveyed to a dry ore surge bin. Ore is withdrawn from the bin and elevated to the upper end of a slurry preparation tower having downwardly aligned process components to enable gravity feed. The ore is further crushed in stages to pumpable size (e.g. -4″) by a stack of crushers and water is added during comminution. The ore and water are mixed in a mixing box and delivered to a pump box. The surge bin and tower are relocatable. Screening and oversize reject treatment have been eliminated to achieve compactness and enable relocatability.