CA2876770A1 - Improved oil sand mining and haulage method - Google Patents

Abstract

The Improved Oil Sand Mining and Haulage Method described herein is an improved flowsheet method and equipment specification covering the steps of oil sand mining, crushing, haulage and surge storage utilization, using best practices of the Bulk Materials Handling engineering discipline to accomplish the following:
.cndot. De-couple series-connected process equipment trains;
.cndot. Introduce process-step redundancies;
.cndot. More effective surge storage capacity utilization and .cndot. Simplification of the overall process flowsheet.

Description

Patent Disclosure: Oil Sands Mining and 'aulage Method and Apparatus 05-Jan-15 W.Cusitar Background Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus refers to the open pit mining and handling of naturally occurring earth materials containing bitumen bearing sand, barren rock and organic materials commonly known in the industry as oil sands. These steps comprise typical process steps of mining, truck haulage, surge storage of trucked oil sands, crushing to reduce as-mined lump size, further sizing of the oil sands and mixing with hot process water and chemicals using typical crushing, sizing, and screening slurry preparation and conditioning equipment processing steps, the final step being hydrotransport pumping of the oil sands slurry mixture to remote Extraction facilities for further treatment steps; the surge function at one or more junctures in the circuit being critical to the cooperative working of batch process steps feeding continuous process steps, so as to maintain continuous feed to the downstream Extraction process plant.
The importance of the oil sands mining and haulage equipment system improvements disclosed in this patent application can hardly be overstated, truly being the front end of subsequent plant sections of crude bitumen upgrading technology. Continuous improvements to oil sands mining and upgrading methods and facilities systems to improve safety, productivity, reliability, availability, maintainability, operability and emissions management are essential to the viability and sustainability of the industry itself.
The inventive oil sands mining and haulage methods and equipment systems described herein represent an improved, integrated approach to mining, crushing, haulage and surge capacity functions, but exclude consideration of all downstream Slurry Preparation, Hydrotransport, Extraction, Froth Treatment, Tailings and other functional a- eas of typical oil sands processing facilities from the scope of the inventive concepts contained herein.
Industry practice for oil sands excavation and haulage in an open pit mining context has evolved over several decades, moving away from the early use of giant bucket wheel excavators and high capacity in-pit conveyor systems for the mining and haulage functions. These early equipment systems were proven to be mechanically complex and labour intensive leading to high costs for maintenance, operating, spillage clean-up and in-pit construction. Due to mining and haulage equipment systems being assembled into discrete "trains" of series-connected of mutually reliant equipment, the overall system productivity and reliability were compromised by frequent unplanned stoppages of complete trains by the failure of any one of the individual equipment elements in a train. The impact of poor productivity and reliability in the oil sands mining and oil sands preparation areas resulted in facility-wide process upsets of the operations of the downstream bitumen extraction and upgrading plants.
A significant technology improvement came in the form of converting mining's excavation equipment to large diesel or electric powered shovels, with the haulage function being taken over by correspondingly large mine haulage trucks. This mining and haulage method is well known in the mining industry as the "truck and shovel" mining method. The flexibility of the mine haulage trucks being able to travel from multiple mining faces hauling loads of excavated oil sands to one or more alternate oil sands preparation facilities were major mine planning, mine productivity and mining flexibility gains compared Page 1 of 3 Patent Disclosure: Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus 05-Jan-15 W.Cusitar to the prior in-pit mining/excavating and conveyor systems, in which the in-pit conveyors were typically situated in substantially fixed locations connecting single bucket wheel excavator mining faces with single remote oil sands preparation facilities. Selective mining and blending of ore grades from multiple mining faces was also compromised by these excavation and haulage methods having so little flexibility.
There was also the issue of these relatively fixed in-pit conveyor structures typically being erected on top of mineable ore in the earliest stages of mining, frequently requiring re-location/re-erection of the conveyors on new right-of-ways to accommodate the mining of multiple benches in a vertical sequence as well as to follow the advancing mining faces on each single mining bench.
Conveyor moves were also dictated by the need to build dam structures in-pit for the containment of new tailing ponds once mining had reached its ultimate economic depth, keeping pace with the advancement of the mining faces.
Industry practice in current oil sands mining operations embraces the co-located construction of oil sands receiving and preparation plants (OPP), oil sands slurry preparation plants (SPP) and hydrotransport (HT) slurry pumping facilities, located either in-pit or on the edge of the pit. Run-of-mine (ROM) oil sands from the mining faces is delivered continuously to these OPP/SPP/HT locations by fleets of mine haulage trucks, shuttling back and forth between the remote mining faces and the fixed OPP/SPP/HT locations. Industry experience supports truck haulage distances in the range of 0.5 to 3 km as being an optimal compromise between mining flexibility at multiple advancing benches and faces and the fixed location of OPP/SPP/HT facilities. As the mining area expands and the mining faces advance further away from the original OPP/SPP/HT locations, truck haulage distances increase with haulage costs increasing due to severe duty service for the tires, extra diesel fuel consumption and other required maintenance activities.
Reduction of green house gas (GHG) emissions from the heavy diesel powered mining and haulage equipment is an on-going concern of both mine operators and regulatory agencies.
Provision of appropriate surge capacity for the OPP/SPP/HT oil sands solids handling and preparation circuits is a critical process consideration, requiring appropriate capacities to be strategically located in the circuit, as the overall mining and processing systems comprises both batch processes such as excavation and truck haulage working sequentially with continuous processes such as crushing and oil sands slurry preparation and pumping. The mining excavator, for example, has to pause digging between cycles of loading consecutive truck loads to allow time for the next empty truck to arrive and replace the prior loaded truck which is leaving. The delay may typically be short but it necessarily occurs with the loading of every haul truck as there is no "surge capacity" other than the shovel bucket of the excavator holding a single filled bucket load representing up to 130 tonnes of capacity.
The primary crusher at the OPP/SPP/HT site typically operates as a continuous process, but is also subject to the random arrival of mine haulage trucks delivering run-of-mine oil sands to the truck dump hopper. Surge capacity is provided in the truck dump hopper, typically in the range of 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes to accommodate at least 2 haulage trucks of 363 tonnes capacity, potentially dumping simultaneously. Functionally, this nominal surge capacity provided immediately ahead of the primary Page 2 of 3 Patent Disclosure: Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus 05-Jan-15 W.Cusitar crusher reduces potential downstream delays caused by the random arrival and dumping of the mine haul trucks .
Providing continuous feed of primary crushed oil sands to the oil sands handling and preparation circuit is even more critical as these process steps and all subsequent steps must operate continuously to prevent significant downstream process upset events. Typical practice in the industry places a large surge bin following the primary crusher, typically containing one half hour capacity in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes of primary crushed oil sands per train, an amount usually adequate to cover for short term upstream upsets such as random apron feeder, crusher or surge bin feed conveyor stoppage delays, or even for the delayed arrival of mine haul trucks delivering fresh loads of oil sands to the truck dump hopper. Typical operating practice in the industry attempts to keep this large surge bin substantially full at all times to cover these types of random delays in receiving fresh primary crushed oil sands at the slurry preparation plant (SPP).
The design layout evolution of typical OPP/SPP/HT facilities in the industry has similarly stagnated. Due to the large size, cost and complexity of the primary crushing plants requiring an associated mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall, oil sands storage/surge bin and oil sands slurry preparation (SPP) and hydrotransport (HT) facilities, the typical site layout has evolved into physical separation of three main discreet plants which are then connected using heavy duty inclined belt conveyors. These conveyors are each major structures costing several tens of millions of dollars to purchase, erect and operate. The conveyor belts can be respectively 350m and 280m in length carrying 2.13m belt widths, each having drives of up to 3,000 kw (4,000 HP). They are also typically maintenance, spillage and clean-up intensive, in particular the 6 large pulleys comprising the head and tail and drive stations which are subject to build-up by sticky oil sands leading to problems of belt misalignment, spillage, damage and maintenance down-time. The layout of the OPP/SPP/HT area footprint is consequently expansive and intrusive on the plant and mining pit operations.
The Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus disclosed herein attempts to work with these disparate equipment systems using the best practices of the Bulk Materials Handling engineering discipline to:
= re-balance equipment sizing and redundancies, = achieve better surge storage capacity utilization and = simplify the overall process flowsheet by the elimination of poorly-placed equipment.
Page 3 of 3 Patent Disclosure: Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus 05-Jan-2015 W.Cusitar Objectives of the Invention The following objectives are addressed by the inventive method and equipment system design concepts respectfully submitted herein:
1. An improved process flowsheet and equipment configuration for the Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus, by re-locating the primary crushing function from the prior art OPP/SPP/HT site to the mining face to receive run-of-mine oil sands directly from the mining excavator, while retaining the haulage flexibility of mine haul truck transportation from the mining faces; also implementing strategies for sizing of surge hoppers or bins to maximize circuit productivity and to minimize downstream process upset delays:
a. Re-locate the primary crusher producing a maximum 400 mm lump size to the area of the mining face, re-configure its arrangement to add a 300 tonne receiving/storage surge hopper and a discharge conveyor for loading mine haulage trucks, add tramp metal detection means on the discharge conveyor and add crawler tracks or other locomotion means to render it fully mobile;
b. Relocate the Surge Bin located at the remote OPP/SPP/HT site into a 3-sided recess in the MSE wall with the elevation of the upper travelling surface corresponding to the top elevation of the Surge Bin, enabling mine haulage trucks to dump primary crushed oil sands directly into the Surge Bin;
c. Utilize mine haulage trucks to travel between multiple mining face locations to one or more remote Surge Bin locations, dumping their loads of primary crushed oil sands directly into a desired one of the Surge Bins, thus eliminating the prior inclined Surge Bin feed belt conveyor from the flowsheet;
d. Reduce the required minimum size of the Surge Bin by recognizing that all mine haul trucks in transit from multiple mining face locations will now be carrying primary crushed oil sands (not run-of-mine oil sands), which tonnages are available on a continuous replacement basis to supplement the capacity of a relatively smaller Surge Bin feeding the SPP facility;

2. Implement the above improved process flowsheet and equipment design strategies to achieve significant capital and operating cost savings, also increasing the overall Mining/OPP/SPP/HT
system reliability and productivity.

3. Enable a supplementary in-pit primary crushed oil sands transportation link in which an overland conveyor can be inserted between mine haul trucks and the remote Surge Bin, in cases where the mine truck haulage distance becomes excessive and inefficient, the overland conveyor being fitted with variable speed controllers and belt feeders known in the art and controlled manually or automatically so as not to overload the belt and to enable keeping the remote Surge Bin at a high percentage of fill at all times.
Page 1 of 3 Patent Disclosure: Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus 05-Jan-2015 W.Cusitar Description and Figures Figure 1: This Figure illustrates a Mobile Excavator means 1 prepared to dig oil sands from a mining face in a mining pit (not shown) and a Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crusher 2, illustrated generally in relative positioning of the said mobile Excavator means to dump said oil sands from its bucket 3 into a Receiving and Storage Hopper means 4, to be reclaimed by a Reclaiming and Transferring Conveyance means 5 feeding to a Primary Crusher means 6, said Primary Crusher means discharging primary crushed oil sand to a Discharging Conveyance means 7 which may be fitted with tramp metal detection means 8.
Said Discharging Conveyance means has both luffing and slewing capability and is able to discharge said primary crushed oil sands into a mine haulage truck means (not shown) for transportation to a potentially distal Oil Sands Receiving and Preparation facility (shown in Figures 2 and 3). The said Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crusher means 2 is mounted on crawler tracks 9 and 10 with turntable means enabling unlimited tramming mobility while working closely in cooperation with said Mobile Excavator means 1. Said mine haulage truck means is able to transport its load of said primary crushed oil sands freely within the said mining pit between the areas of said mining faces and the areas of said potentially distal Oil Sands Preparation facility.
Figure 2: This Figure illustrates the first of two portions of a potentially distal Oil Sands Receiving and Oil Sands Preparation facility comprising a Surge Bin means 12 mounted into a 3-sided recess of a Mechanically Stabilized Earth Wall (MSE) means 13 constructed on a prepared grade surface 14 of said mining pit and having an elevated upper surface 15 upon which said mine haul truck means (not shown) are able to travel and approach said Surge Bin means 12 for the purpose of dumping their load of said primary crushed oil sands therein. Concrete Curbs 16 are conveniently placed to surround the exposed said Surge Bin means 12 sitting in the said 3-sided recess of the MSE wall 13 at such a height and arrangement as to prevent said mine haul truck means from accidentally falling into the said Surge Bin means 12, but also to enable said mine haul truck means to back up to the said Concrete Curbs 16 and dump their loads of said primary crushed oil sands into the said Surge Bin means 12. The said Concrete Curbs 16 are fitted with a Sealing means 17 to prevent spillage. The said Surge Bin means 12 is fitted with an Inclined Reclaiming, Transferring Conveyance and Metering means 18 to reclaim said Primary Crushed Oil Sands 19 from said Receiving and Surge Bin means 12, discharging said Primary Crushed Oil Sands 19 into a Receiving Chute means 20 of said Oil Sands Preparation facility. The said Surge Bin means 12 has suitable support structural means 21 shown in simplified form.
Figure 3: This Figure Illustrates the second of two portions of said potentially distal Oil Sands Preparation facility, said second portion being fed from said Reclaiming, Transferring Conveyance and Metering means 18 described as feeding said second portion of said Oil Sands Preparation facility via said Receiving Chute means 20; said second portion of said Oil Sands Preparation facility being outside of the scope of this patent application.
Figure 4: This Figure is an overall block flow diagram for the said Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method, in which said Mobile Excavator means 1 digs oil sands from a said mining face in a mining pit and dumps said oil sands into a Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crusher 2, which loads said primary crushed oil sands into said Mine Haulage Trucks, which transport said primary crushed oil sands to a Surge Bin Page 2 of 3 Patent Disclosure: Oil Sands Mining and Haulage Method and Apparatus 05-Jan-2015 W.Cusitar means 12; the primary crushed oil sands then being transferred into a said Receiving Chute means 20 of the said Oil Sands Preparation facility. Figure 4 also illustrates an optional said Overland Conveyor means 22 being inserted between said mine haulage truck means and said remote Surge Bin means.
Figure 5: Figure 5 illustrates an Overland Conveyor means 22 being inserted between said mine haulage truck means (not shown) and said remote Surge Bin means 12. Said Overland Conveyor means 22 is fed from a Belt Loading means 23 which receives said primary crushed oil sands from said mine haulage trucks (not shown) into a Loading Hopper means 24 having a capacity greater than one said truck dump load, or nominally not more than 400 tonnes. Said belt loading means 23 is fitted with a reclaiming conveyor 25 having a variable speed drive to enable loading said primary crushed oil sands 19 onto said Overland Conveyor means 22 at such a rate as not to exceed the capacity of said Overland Conveyor means. Said Overland Conveyor means 22 is fitted with a variable speed drive system 26 to enable transporting and discharging said primary crushed oil sands 19 into said Surge Bin means 12 as illustrated and described for Figure 2, subsequently being discharged into Receiving Chute means 20 of said Oil Sands Preparation means 21 as illustrated and described for Figure 3.
Said Overland Conveyor means 22 and said Belt Loading means 23 are well known in the art and are commercially available from multiple vendors, as are load sensing means, variable speed drive means and manual or automated control means relied upon in this disclosure.
Generality of This Description: Although this invention is described as one single oil sands mining and haulage train for purposes of clarity, it will be understood by those familiar with the art that industry practice often "pairs" parallel trains or even "triples" portions of trains in the arrangement of conventional OPP/SPP/HT systems, primarily to achieve forms of redundancy and to share common services. As examples, large Surge Bins are often designed to allow said primary crushed oil sands to "cross-over" inside the bin to enable feeding two or three otherwise independent SPP trains under certain circumstances. Equipment such as the primary crusher may be constructed to have significant "sprint" capacity to enable high capacity output to service two SPP trains on a short term basis. It will be understood that other forms of "hot spare" redundancy strategies are also available to the system operator to improve the apparent availability of the overall system, including multiple redundancies of Mobile Excavator means, mobile mine haulage trucks and the proposed Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crushers paired with each mobile excavator at each active mining face.
Nothing in this invention disclosure is intended to limit or exclude such practices for the overall OPP/SPP/HT systems.
Known Vendor Technology: Although many items of equipment described for this invention disclosure are already known and commercially available in the art, the inventor believes their collaborative functions, design features and usage sequence as described in this invention disclosure are unique and beneficial relative to current industry practice. Further, the inventor has attempted to provide sufficient design criteria, figures and descriptive text that would enable one familiar with the art and the industry to design, construct and achieve the benefits described.
Page 3 of 3

Claims (13)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION FOR WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY AND PRIVILEGE
RIGHTS
ARE CLAIMED ARE DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS:

Claims

1. Independent: An improved oil sands mining and haulage method for naturally occurring earth materials containing bitumen-bearing sand, barren rock and organic materials commonly known in the industry as oil sands; said oil sands being caused to pass through the sequential steps of mining by an excavator means known in the art, being temporarily held in a Receiving and Surge Hopper means, being reclaimed by a reclaiming conveyance means and being crushed by a primary crusher means known in the art; primary crushed oil sands being discharged from said primary crusher means onto a discharging conveyance means, loading said primary crushed oil sands into typical mine haulage truck means, said primary crushed oil sands being transported by said mine haulage truck means and being dumped into a Surge Bin means located at a potentially distal oil sands preparation facility means; said primary crushed oil sands being reclaimed from said Surge Bin means and being fed to said oil sands preparation facility means;

2. Dependent: In claim #1and #7 said Receiving and Surge Hopper means, said reclaiming conveyance means, said primary crusher means and said discharging conveyance means being integrally constructed and mounted onto a mobile chassis configuration so as to enable continuously receiving, storing and reclaiming said oil sands excavated by said mobile excavator means, crushing said oil sands, and loading said primary crushed oil sands into said mine haulage truck means;

3. Dependent: In claim #1 and #7 the achievement of an improved calculated Ore Preparation Plant, Slurry Preparation Plant and Hydrotransport (OPP/SPP/HT) system availability for the said mining method due to the relocation or elimination of prior art equipment located at the OPP/SPP/HT
site including the truck dump hopper means, the truck dump apron feeder means, the said Primary Crusher means and the Surge Bin Feed Conveyor means; said relocated or eliminated equipment no longer being required to be taken into consideration for the calculation of said OPP/SPP/HT system availability; also considering the aggregated said mine haulage truck live loads of said primary crushed oil sands in transit to said Surge Bin means contributing to increased system surge storage capacity;
the net benefit of said equipment relocation or elimination and aggregated increased surge capacity over the prior industry practice being the increase of OPP/SPP/HT
productivity and availability along with reduced maintenance and operating costs.

4. Dependent: In claim #1, #2 and #7 said discharging conveyance means being equipped with a tramp metal detection and alarm means to enable a manual or automated metal removal procedure such as, for example, slewing the said discharging conveyance means to one side or to the other side to cause the said tramp metal to be discharged onto the ground for subsequent handling and disposal.

5. Dependent: In claim #1 a supplemental transportation link or links in the process flowsheet comprising the addition of one or more overland conveyor means known in the art being inserted between said mine haulage truck means and said Surge Bin means, said overland conveyor means having a variable speed drive means known in the art and operative with belt speed sensor means known in the art and being of a length and capacity to transfer said truck loads of said primary crushed oil sands at a suitable rate to meet the processing needs of the said potentially distal oil sands preparation facility means, either in total or in combination with continued access of said mine haul trucks independently and simultaneously discharging said primary crushed oil sands directly into said Surge Bin means;
said overland conveyor means being provided with a belt loading means known in the art to receive the full contents of said primary crushed oil sands from one said mine haulage truck dump hopper means and to feed said primary crushed oil sands at a controllable rate to said overland conveyor means; said primary crushed oil sands being caused to discharge from said overland conveyor means directly into said Surge Bin means;
said Surge Bin means being fitted with level detection sensor means known in the art and operative with said variable speed controller means on said overland conveyor means either to increase or decrease the rate of filling of said Surge Bin means so as to maintain an optimum percentage filling of said Surge Bin means;
said overland conveyor means having either one or multiple said belt loading means being simultaneously located along its length, each such location being fitted with load sensing devices known in the art on said overland conveyor means and being operative with control interlock means to the adjacent said belt loading means to control the loading rate of said primary crushed oil sands onto said overland conveyor means so as to avoid spillage from and overloading of said overland conveyor means;
the usage of said overland conveyor being made possible by the relocation of said primary crusher means to the area of the mining face, the removal of said tramp metal contained in the said primary crushed oil sands and the loading of said mine haulage truck means with conveyable said primary crushed oil sands, unlike prior industry practise in which said mine haulage trucks are loaded with "as mined" or ROM ore containing large said lump sizes and randomly occurring tramp metal that are either not conveyable or can damage the belt, respectively;

the advantage of the new art being that conveyor transportation of said primary crushed oil sands is more economical, practical and environmentally acceptable over long distances than the continued operation of said mine haulage trucks over said long distances.
said overland conveyor means delivering said conveyable primary crushed oil sands to said Surge Bin means in combination with said mine haul trucks also delivering said primary crushed oil sands directly to said Surge Bin replacing prior industry practice of using an inclined belt conveyor means to feed said Surge Bin means with said primary crushed oil sands.

6. Dependent: In claims #1, #2 and #7 the provision of oil sands surge capacities at said Receiving and Storage Hopper means between said Mobile Excavator means and said Primary Crusher means of about 300 tonnes; the provision of surge capacity of not less than 400 tonnes at each of said optional Overland Conveyor's said Loading Hopper means; the provision of not less than 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of capacity at said remote Surge Bin means plus the said live load capacities of up to 15 or more loaded said mine Haulage Truck means in transit towards said Surge Bin means equal to an additional 5,445 tonnes of primary crushed oil sands for a cumulative total of about 6,945 tonnes of said primary crushed oil sands surge capacity being available for feeding of said Oil Sands Preparation facility means; said cumulative total being approximately double the amount of surge capacity typically provided in the prior art to safeguard against an unplanned upstream delay or stoppage event.

7. Independent: An improved, oil sands mining and haulage equipment system in which a mobile excavator means excavates naturally occurring earth materials containing a combination of bitumen-bearing sand, barren rock and organic materials commonly known in the industry as oil sands, said mobile excavator means digging said oil sands from a mining face of an open pit mine and loading said oil sands into a Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crusher means having a Receiving and Storage Hopper means, a reclaiming and transferring conveyance means, a primary crusher means, and a discharging conveyance means; said Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crusher means working in close proximity to and in cooperation with said mobile excavator means to enable the sequential steps of digging said oil sands by said mobile excavator means, loading said oil sands into said Receiving and Storage Hopper means, storing said oil sands in said Receiving and Storage Hopper means, reclaiming and transferring said oil sands from said Receiving and Storage Hopper means to said primary oil sands crusher means, crushing said oil sands and discharging primary crushed oil sands into said typical mine haulage truck means from said discharging conveyance means;
said typical mine haulage truck means known in the art having a dump hopper means and being motivated by an internal combustion engine or electrical propulsion motors such as to be highly flexible to receive and deliver a load of said primary crushed oil sands from the location of any one of multiple potentially distal said Mobile At-Face Primary Oil Sands Crusher means to the said Surge Bin means location of any one of multiple potentially distal said oil sands preparation facility locations;
the said Surge Bin means located at the said potentially distal oil sands preparation facilities for receiving and storing said primary crushed oil sands having a reclaiming and transferring conveyance means for reclaiming and transferring said primary crushed oil sands from said Surge Bin means to feed the said oil sands preparation facility means; said Surge Bin means being surrounded on three sides by a mechanically stabilized earth wall means, the elevation of the top of said mechanically stabilized earth wall means being substantially equal to the elevation of the top edge of said Surge Bin means to enable said typical mine haulage truck means to approach said Surge Bin means on the upper surface of said mechanically stabilized earth wall for the purpose of dumping said load of said primary crushed oil sands directly into said Surge Bin means;
said three sides of said Surge Bin means being fitted with a protective barrier means and sealing means to the closely adjacent wall portions of said mechanically stabilized earth wall means so as to prevent spillage of said primary crushed oil sands during dumping of said primary crushed oil sands by said typical mine haulage truck means into said Surge Bin means, the fourth side of said Surge Bin means being exposed and clear of said mechanically stabilized earth wall means and said protective barriers and said sealing means;
said reclaiming and transferring conveyance and metering means being arranged within said Surge Bin means to extend from the exposed fourth side of said Surge Bin means so as to engage with further sequential components of said oil sands preparation equipment system means;
said Primary Crusher means being located at the said mining face replacing prior industry practise of locating said Primary Crusher at a said OPP/SPP/HT facility means;
said Mine Haulage Truck means being used to transport primary crushed ore to replace prior industry practise of said Mine Haulage Truck means transporting only "as-mined" oil sands to said OPP/SPP/HT facility;
said Mine Haulage Truck means being used to feed the said Surge Bin means directly, so as to replace and eliminate prior industry practise of using said inclined SPP Feed Belt Conveyor means to feed said Surge Bin means;

8. Dependent: In claims #1, #2 and #7 the arrangement of the said mobile at-face primary oil sands crusher in which the live capacity of said Receiving and Storage Hopper means will be about three times the live bucket capacity of the associated said mobile excavator means, or in any case about 300 tonnes.

9. Dependent: In claims #1 and #7 the physical separation distance between the location of said mining face having said excavator means with said primary crushing means and the location of said Surge Bin at the potentially distal oil sands preparation facilities being any required distance including 15 kilometers, said typical mine haulage truck means being capable of transferring said loads of said primary crushed oil sands between said distal locations.

10.Dependent: In claims #1 and #7 the calculated design live capacity of said Surge Bin means being numerically equal to at least half of the rated hourly capacity of the said potentially distal oil sands preparation facilities, or in any case at least 1,000 tonnes.

11.Dependent: In claims #1 and #10 the calculated design live capacity of said Surge Bin means suitable for being numerically reduced from prior art practise by consideration of the aggregated live volume capacities of said typical mine haulage trucks means containing said primary crushed oil sands, said aggregated live volumes being delivered to the said Surge Bin means at a predictable average frequency of said mine haulage truck arrival and dumping primary crushed oil sands to augment the live capacity of the said Surge Bin means feeding said oil sand preparation facility means.

12.Dependent: In claims #1 and #7 the said primary crusher means discharging a nominal maximum said oil sand lump size of about 400mm;

13.Dependent: In claim #7 a supplemental transportation link or links in the said oil sands mining and haulage equipment system comprising the addition of one or more overland conveyor means known in the art being inserted between said mine haulage truck means and said Surge Bin means, said overland conveyor means having a variable speed drive means known in the art and operative with belt speed sensor means also known in the art and being of a length and capacity to transfer said truck loads of said primary crushed oil sands at a suitable rate to meet the processing needs of the said potentially distal oil sands preparation facility means, either in total or in combination with continued access of said mine haul trucks independently and simultaneously discharging said primary crushed oil sands directly into said Surge Bin means;
said overland conveyor means being initially installed at any convenient length or direction from said Surge Bin means to suit the mining plan and the locations of said mining faces and the existing or planned mine truck haulage roads or other said mining pit construction features such as berms or dykes or drainage ditches or ponds in the open pit mine; said overland conveyor having a design capability to accommodate both vertical and horizontal curves;
the maximum design length of said overland conveyor being achieved either by incremental extensions over time or immediately at full design length as required to suit the mining operations, said overland conveyor means being of any suitable standardized design and of a length including 4 km;

said overland conveyor means being provided with a belt loading means known in the art to receive the full contents of said primary crushed oil sands from one said mine haulage truck dump hopper means and to feed said primary crushed oil sands at a controllable rate to said overland conveyor means; said primary crushed oil sands being caused to discharge from said overland conveyor means directly into said Surge Bin means;
said Surge Bin means being fitted with level detection sensor means known in the art and operative with said variable speed controller means for said overland conveyor means either to increase or decrease the rate of filling of said Surge Bin means so as to maintain an optimum percentage filling of said Surge Bin means;
said belt loading means being located at the tail pulley location of said overland conveyor means or at any other location along the installed length of said overland conveyor means; skirting boards, chutes and other means known in the art being used to contain potential belt spillage at said loading points along said overland conveyor means;
said overland conveyor means having either one or multiple said belt loading means being simultaneously located along its length, each such location being fitted with adjacent load sensing means known in the art on said overland conveyor means being operative with control interlock means to the adjacent said belt loading means to control the loading rate of said primary crushed oil sands onto said overland conveyor means so as to avoid spillage and overloading of said overland conveyor means;
the usage of said overland conveyor means being made possible by the relocation of said primary crusher means to the area of said mining face, the removal of said tramp metal contained in the said primary crushed oil sands and loading said mine haulage truck means with conveyable said primary crushed oil sands, unlike prior industry practise in which said mine haulage trucks are loaded with "as mined" or ROM ore containing large said lump sizes and randomly occurring tramp metal that are either not conveyable or can damage the belt, respectively;
the advantage of the new art being that conveyor transportation of said primary crushed oil sands is more economical, practical and environmentally acceptable over long distances than the continued operation of said mine haulage trucks over said long distances;
said overland conveyor means delivering said conveyable primary crushed oil sands to said Surge Bin means in combination with said mine haul trucks also delivering said primary crushed oil sands directly to said Surge Bin replacing prior industry practice of using an inclined belt conveyor means to feed said Surge Bin means with said primary crushed oil sands.