Work pictures......Tar Sands

[Reeves]

First picture shows a trench dug out for a water line (all for fire) over a huge site, 90km north of Fort McMurray Alberta.
The dark seams are Tar Sands. The hoe sitting there is an 800 (big).


Keep in mind these Tar seams are not the seams they are after. That is deeper and oil literally drips out of it (except in cold weather), and is several hundred feet deep (the seam).


Deep trenches , some 6m deep and some deeper. To get into them for placing sand and pipe, you need a hoe with a long reach. Hitachi 330 long stick. Has a sixty foot reach !


A chunk of Tar Sands. It is like roofing tar, mixed with sand. Stinks ! It would have shown more black in color.....if I had taken the picture before spilling more sand on it while moving dirt from the trench.


Takes big equipment to move large amounts of dirt !
Buddy standing next to a hoe.

[CharlieHorse]

Is that you in the picture?






                                                                                             

[jchiar]

Is that you in the picture?       Nice one Frank






                                                                                             

[Jake Levi]

Awesome !

[CharlieHorse]

 

What's it take?.............about 10 gallon of oil to get one gallon of oil out of that stuff?

 

How big (thick) are these seams that they are after?  Can it be mined (longwall) in a similar fashion as coal?

[Pheasant Hollow Farm]

A chunk of Tar Sands. It is like roofing tar, mixed with sand. Stinks ! It would have shown more black in color.....if I had taken the picture before spilling more sand on it while moving dirt from the trench

Reeves,

Can this stuff be collected as it is in this state, and be heated at high tempertures, and then be used to resurface asphalt roadways?

Kudo's on the pictures, insteresting job working enviroment..

Steve
Pheasant Hollow Farm

[birddog]

I see Hitachi,  John Deere and Case. Caterpillar not to popular up north??

[Reeves]

Quick replys...

Not me in the picture.

No Cat equipment on this site. (Junk !  )

Steve...no idea ! Lots about this stuff I do not know about.
Overburden is about 90(ish) feet deep. Small seams like in pictures down to that level. Then solid tar seam for several hundered feet deep.

I was told the stuff used to be mined and used as is for tar roofing (flat roofs), back many years ago.

Not sure on conversion rates. I had heard one time that they can produce a barrel for $29.00. Depending on how it is done, mining or steam injection. Steam is supposed to cost less per barrel....but recovery not as good. Steam injestion is used where the tar sands are deeper.
Three winters ago I work at a new site that was steam injection and the seam started at 600 feet deep.

Tar sands run from BC, across AB, Sask and into Manatoba. From Edmonton north to ? well, a lot farther than Fort McMurray.
Those with Google earth and high speed can research tar sands .....

Keep forgetting my camrea....that 1200 is a mini excavator compared to some equipment up here !

[yote1]

Reeves, I agree wheres the Cat or Komatsu? Have any idea what that black tar weighs per ton? I'm betting that a yard and 3/4 bucket would be heavy and hard to dump real wet.  You said stinks, gas smells or just like s--T. Good pictures

[Pheasant Hollow Farm]

Reeves,

Why don't you take a bucket of it home with you and see what you can do with it... If it can be heating enough to become workable, you can at least use it for any untreated poles that you may set in the future... Almost like the creosote they use on the utility poles.

Steve
Pheasant Hollow Farm

[Reeves]

yote1.....this company has mostly Krapmatsu machines....
Smell is gas and other petroleum like smells. Some very strong !

Steve.....cost me more to haul some home than it would cost to buy tar at home ! Stuff is very heavy !

Rain out this afternoon.....you should see the oil like stuff running off the ground ! Greased mud !

Don't think creosote is used in Canada any more....? Besides....my steel poles are plastic coated ! 

[yote1]

Reeves, it's hard to believe that they even let you dig that crap up. I would think they would have dispose of that tar.

[Reeves]

Oil is money.....

Site I'm working on is the size of a postage stamp, when compared to the size of the tar sands.
Get in your truck and drive in a straight line , at 60-65 mph , for 8 hours. That would be the north/south of the area.
After that, do the same east/west for about 2-3 days.
Big patch of this stuff !

I would think they would have dispose of that tar.

We are....and sending it down south to you folks to burn in your vehicles ! 

[CharlieHorse]

I sure could have some fun with that stuff.  Actually, I've probably got my own deposit in my driveway where I park my Toyleta Motorized Wheelbarrow.   

We are....and sending it down south to you folks to burn in your vehicles !

 Oh no you're not!  Barack Hussien says that it is not cost effective and contaminates the soil and atmosphere. And that it wouldn't quite be enough of a "change" that he keeps harpin' about.  We're leaning more towards wood powered steam engines in the new Toyletas and buggies driven by minature jackasses under the hood.  Ford Mustang is coming out with minature pony's and the new GMC's will have mid sized Clydesdales. That's "change" isn't it?  And he knows everything for cryin' out loud, ain't cha heard?.......................besides, it's from Canada. If it was from China it would be ok though.    

 They'll keep on cruisin' like they have for years...........burn theirs (every other country) up first while we sit on ours (North America). 

"Thou who haveth the last barrel of oil.....winneth".     

[Reeves]

 

Like how your brain works 

But, news flash.....the company I'm working for is owned by a States company ! A lot of the biggest const. companies are now owned, or being bought out by the money from down south. Bank(s) are not doing well in the States , so they are moving money north.
Also, the biggest and newest kid on the block in this area.....is China. They bought the Long Lake Project (steam injection - oil sands)