In bitumen recovery from oil sands, a percentage of the bitumen is lost to tailings. The effect of fugitive bitumen on fines settling and consolidation in tailings ponds remains controversial. In the current study, the settling performance of mature fine tailings (MFT) in response to flocculant addition was considered by studying MFT of varying bitumen content. Bitumen content in the MFT was adjusted by controlled removal of bitumen using a Denver flotation cell.

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