Overview of SGS’ Tailings Services for the Oil Sands

SGS is the regional leader in the provision of independent field, laboratory and professional services for:

• Tailings pond technical
• Operational
• Maintenance
• Environmental needs

All operational work, sampling, testing and quantification of key parameters for extraction or tailings streams, and in-situ pond materials can be handled safely and effectively by our experienced team.

Tailings ponds dominate regional landscape

PILOT SUPPORT SERVICES

Our pilot plant support services include:

• Experienced operators and foremen
• Line relocation and assembly
• Valve and pump maintenance
• Weir-gate monitoring and maintenance
• Technical services, including:
  • Flow-type characterization
  • Slope angle monitoring
  • Stream and deposit sampling
  • On-line density and flow rate monitoring
  • Deposit trafficability and in-situ strength testing

Pilot plant support

OPERATIONS SUPORT SERVICES

Our operational support services include:

Dredge Operations

• On-line density, flow rate, operating depth monitoring
• Downtime monitoring
• Volume and tonnage reporting

Dredge operations

Maintenance Support

• Line, barge and siphon relocations
• Pipe fusing / welding
• Extraction and pumping labour
• Ice breaking

Ice-breaking and operations support

BIRD AND ANIMAL DETERRENT SERVICES

We strive to protect the wildlife surrounding our operations by the:

• Procurement, assembly, deployment and ongoing monitoring and maintenance of scare cannons

• Construction, deployment and ongoing maintenance of floating scarecrow effigies

TECHNICAL SERVICES

Our technical services include:

• Fully equipped field lab trailers
• Specialized sampling vessels
• Specialized sampling tools
• Daily mudline and surface elevation monitoring and reporting
• Water-cap sampling, chemical analyses and reporting
• Comprehensive pond characterization programs, including:
  • Delineation and mapping of mudline and pond bottom surfaces.
  • Generation of sampling profiles.
  • Pond bottom coring and core logging.
  • In-situ chemistry and strength testing.
  • Volume determination.
  • Stratigraphic interpretation.
  • Modeling of key parameters.
  • Detailed technical reports.
  • Special consulting services, including needs assessments and scope co-development with client, and technical presentations to clients and expert review boards.
• Professional engineering and geology staff registered with the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA).
• Experienced field technologists and engineers.

Pond sediment sampling

Insitu sampling and testing

Professional interpretation