Standing on "reclaimed" overburden area looking at the Syncrude site in the distance (with a wonderful tailings pond in plain site). There were canons going off to scare birds away and keep them from landing on the pond.
One of the "smaller" trucks toting bitumen, the sand-like substance containing the oil, back to the initial production site.
Another earth mover heading back to the mine site right past our bus.
The tail end of a 400-ton earth mover.
An earth mover headed down hill towards the mine site, with the main production plant in the background.
The mounds of bitumen recovered from the mine at the production plant. The tower is the part of the machinery that begins upgrading (a process of adding hot water to a pipe full of resource to separate the oil from the sand).
Me standing inside one of the OLD shovels used at one point in time for mining (now it is old technology and is on display for tourists right outside the syncrude site).
View of the Syncrude site from the highway. There is no real physical barrier separating the main highway from the tailings pond seen in this photo.
What the Borreal Forrest looks like before actually getting to the mine (AKA what the mine used to be before production started). Companies say they are working to reclaim every mine site to be as close to this as possible.
