Grant: Alliance Grants

The bitumen froth treatment tailings from Alberta's oil sands operation contain economical grades of heavy minerals bearing rare-earth-elements (REE), titanium (Ti) and zirconium (Zr). The minerals are monazite, ilmenite, leucoxene, and zircon. An Alberta Chamber of Resources study in 1994-1996 showed that, if the heavy minerals were recovered, the froth treatment tailings would represent 6% of the world's annual consumption of titanium, 9% of the world's annual production of zirconium, and 35% of the world's annual production of rare-earth-elements at the time. The tailings also contained an economical grade of monazite. With the significantly increased oil sands production rate and the depleting beach sands deposits in Australia and South Africa, the share of the heavy minerals contained in the oil sands tailings in the world market should be much higher today. In this project, we will collaborate with CVW CleanTech and InnoTech Alberta to study the recovery and upgrading of monazite, zircon and titanium oxide minerals from froth treatment tailings from all particle size fractions, and to develop develop Al alloys, next generation steels, and high entropy alloys for targeted hydrogen storage and high-temperature applications.