Santa Rosa Oil Sands Project. Final technical report

Technical Report · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6890947

Forster, G M

A continuous 25-barrel-per-day pilot plan to recover bitumen from tar sands was built and operated by Solv-Ex Corp. to test and develop its process for a proposed 4000 BPSD commercial plant at Santa Rosa, NM. A small test mine was opened near Santa Rosa and some s5000 tons of ore were mined and crushed for processing. A crater test program was carried out in the floor of the test mine. Crushing tests showed a low abrasivity with low fines generation enabling crushing equipment selections to be made. Capital and operating costs including surface mining for the 4000 BPSD were developed together with a favorable financial analysis and socioeconomic assessment. The environmental impact of the project was determined to be minimal with the plant designed to meet all current regulations. A chronological recounting of the history of the reserve estimates from 1933 is included with references. Whereas the project was based on an economically recoverable resource estimate of 19.2 million barrels of bitumen in ore of 4% or greater content (average 5.42%), an extensive 65-core hole exploration program failed to determine an adequate resource. A new tetrahydrofuran solvent extraction assay method was developed after discovery that the previously used loss on ignition method overstated the ore bitumen content. Finally on 942 acres, the average bitumen concentration was 3.78%; the mineable reserves was estimated at 8.8 million barrels with only a small amount recoverable at the projected mining cost of $10 per barrel. Consequently the project was terminated for economic reasons. 14 references, 6 figures, 10 tables.

• Research Organization: Solv-Ex Corp., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6890947
• Report Number(s): NMERDI-2-71-4604; ON: TI84901080
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040300 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining
040402* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Surface Methods
BITUMENS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COMMINUTION
CRUSHING
ENERGY SOURCES
FEDERAL REGION VI
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
MATERIALS
MINING
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
OIL SAND PROCESSING PLANTS
OIL SANDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PILOT PLANTS
RECOVERY
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
SURFACE MINING
TAR
USA