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the apartment looks nice. its about 1000 sq ft. but i think its cheaply made. i joke that its made of popsicle sticks and paper mache.
many of the transient workers live in "camps" at the mine sites. their shifts are generally 14 days straight of 12 hour days. so commuting the hour or more back to town doesnt make sense. the camps would be dormitory style housing. soume would have shared bathrooms. cafeteria style food, commom relaxing room and gyms, etc.
there is probably houses and apartments for about 125k people. the rest are in camps. remember though that the census only reord permanent residents
the cost of food is only a little bit more expensive. maybe 10 or 20% more. you can still get a Mdonalds meal for 6-8$ (remember canada is already more expensive than the US in that regard)
so quick breakdown on the processes.
for oil sands near the surface.
1. mine it using big shovels and trucks.
2. crush the ore then repulp it in hot water, inject air. pump the slurry 5km to the plant
3. the bitumen floats to form a froth, the sand sinks to form tailings.
4. bitumen cant be pumped on its own its too viscous so they add naptha as a solvent to dilute it.
5. pump the diluted bitumen to the upgraders which are near edmonton.
6. separate the naptha, send it back to the mine. "Upgrade" the bitumen which involve distilation, coking and cracking and the long carbon chains to produce sythentic crude.
7. sell the syncrude to a refinery to make diesel and gasoline. some refineries are near edmonton. or the syncrude is sent to the US, or west to Vancouver where it can be sent over to asia.
for the deep deposits the mine in situ.
1. pump steam underground
2. it heats up and reduces the viscosity of the bitumen allowing it to flow.
3. pump out the bitumen. send it to the upgraders.
100 barels of bitumen yields about 70 barrels of syncrude. the rest is ashpaltene and coke. these byproducts do have some value, so all is not lost.
it is energy intensive. to make 100 barrels of bitumen requires 20 barrels of oil for energy (steam, power, etc)
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