Determination of clay content in Canadian oil sands using x‐ray florescence spectroscopy for diagnosis of ore processability

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, a simple and robust method based on the use of x‐ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to measure potassium content as an indicator of illite in oil sands was proposed and tested. The XRF results of illite determination were compared with those determined using the conventional methylene blue titration (MBT) method. To test the suitability of the XRF method for determining illite content in various streams of oil sands processing as a diagnosis tool, a toluene‐diluted‐bitumen solution was used to contaminate solid surfaces prior to their analysis by the XRF and MBT methods. In order to remove the organic matter from the bitumen‐contaminated solids for evaluating the XRF and MBT method, toluene washing and low temperature ashing were applied to the bitumen‐contaminated solids prior to their analysis. The robustness of the XRF analysis in comparison with the MBT method was further confirmed by analyzing the solids extracted from bitumen froth and tailings stream. The results show that the XRF method was more tolerant to surface contamination and therefore more reliable in determining illite content in oil sands and relevant processing streams. It was also found that the potassium contents measured by the XRF method on solids from 10 ores show a strong correlation with the corresponding fines contents of these ores, indicating that the XRF method can potentially be used to determine the fines content of oil sands and related processing streams.