Oil Sands and Oil Shale

One of Marston's fastest growing sectors is in the Oil Sands and Oil Shale industries.  Marston has extensive experience working with Canadian oil sands producers, as well as with developers and investors of Canadian and international oil sands and oil shale deposits. Marston’s experience and expertise covers traditional mining and tailings technology as well as the evaluation of New Technologies in mining and tailings.

 

Marston provides a wide range of services including:

  • Exploration and drilling support
  • Geological modeling
  • Resources and reserves estimation and reporting
  • Development and evaluation of mine plans
  • Design of waste impoundment structures
  • Bankable feasibility studies and audits
  • Risk analysis
  • Tailings management planning
  • Capital and operating cost estimation
  • Regulatory application support 

 

Major clients include:

  • Suncor Energy, Inc.
  • Syncrude Canada Ltd.
  • Total E&P Canada
  • Canadian Natural Resources, Ltd.
  • Shell Canada Ltd. - Albian Sands
  • Imperial Oil Ltd.
  • Jordan Energy and Mining Ltd.
  • TransAlta

 

Marston has the experience and expertise required to help our clients evaluate and develop their oil sands and oil shale deposits. Marston's procedures and attention to detail are unmatched in the industry.

Spotlight Project

 

Suncor Energy, Inc.
Ongoing Oil Sands Mining Operations
Location

Northern Alberta, Canada

Challenge

Suncor needed ongoing technical support for mine planning and the evaluation of alternatives to develop its oil sands deposits.

Solution

Marston has provided mine engineering support to Suncor’s active mining operations on an ongoing basis for the past eight years.  Some of the projects that have been successfully completed include the preparation of stratigraphic and block models, the estimation of reserves, the development of mine expansion plans, the design of dykes and waste dumps, the development of short- and long-term mine plans and tailings plans, the evaluation of in-pit placement of waste and tailings and the evaluation of alternative mine plans and tailings technologies. 

 

Canadian Natural Resources, Inc.
Horizon Project
Location

Northern Alberta, Canada

Challenge

The client was in the process of developing new surface mineable oil sands operations and required technical support.

Solution

Marston developed detailed mine plans and production schedules for the project and conducted a costing analysis for the operations.  As well, Marston developed a comprehensive tailings model and plan from first principals.