The World Chess Championship, Reykjavik, Iceland 1972. The Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky, defending champion, is defeated by Bobby Fischer of the United States. Dubbed the Match of the Century, it was hailed as one of the greatest single applications of human intellect.
Oil sands tailings – what’s left after the raw sand has been processed to extract the useful bitumen – has always been a complex challenge for the industry.
Suncor employees made palaeontological history the other day when they turned up the almost intact remains of an ankylosaur, one of the Jurassic Era’s most famous dinosaurs and the oldest dinosaur bones ever found in Alberta.
Oil sands development and its associated impacts are complex topics, which generate lots of discussion. Much of this is thoughtful and good-intentioned, however it can sometimes get ugly for participants.
The recent unfortunate death of more ducks in tailing ponds has thrust the issue of whether oil sands operations are safe for wildlife back into the headlines.
The federal government’s latest National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) data highlighted how oil sands tailing ponds contain a wide variety of potentially harmful substances, notably heavy metals such as lead, mercury, chromium, and vanadium.*
Pembina Institute’s recent report (PDF) on risks posed by oil sands development in the Mackenzie River basin is not only inaccurate, it makes several serious claims that cannot be allowed to stand uncorrected.
Oil Sands Question and Response (OSQAR) is a blog created by Suncor Energy to support constructive dialogue about the oil sands. In our weekly posts, we talk about the energy industry, environmental impact, tailings management and reclamation, water management and the social and economic implications of oil sands development.
Our oil sands operations are near Fort McMurray, Alberta, where we recover bitumen from oil sands through mining and in situ operations. The bitumen from both operations is then upgraded to refinery-ready feedstock and diesel fuel. More about the where and the what of the oil sands can be found on our oil sands resource page.
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