February 2012- Suncor, formerly the Great Canadian OilSands CO., was the first oil sands development and is the second largest operation. It employs strip mining, where the forest or “overburden” is cleared, then the earth is shovelled and processed to separate the oily bitumen from the sand. The process requires large amounts of water and creates huge tailings ponds that have proven problematic for reclamation.
This land was once all Boreal Forest, and under the current regulations every square mile of mine must be returned to near original condition and productive state after mining is complete, a feat that has yet to proven possible.
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