The interplay of methane and ammonia as key oxygen consuming constituents in early stage development of Base Mine Lake, the first demonstration oil sands pit lake

The efficacy of oil sands water capped tailings technology is currently being assessed in the first pilot pit lake in the Athabasca Oil Sands region (AOSR). Base Mine Lake (BML, Syncrude Canada Mildred Lake mine, Fort McMurray AB Canada) was commissioned in December of 2012 and consists of circa 40 m depth of fluid fine tailings (FFT) overlain by circa 10 m of a freshwater cap. As this is the first oil sands pit lake, it is unknown to what …