Those jars I brought probably are the best visual explanation you can get that the clays and the sand will not adhere to the bitumen coating, and that's because of the minimum free energy level of the bitumen on the bead. There's not enough energy in the hydrocarbon coating to adhere to the soil particles. You have an interfacial surface tension factor of about 33 dynes per centimetre for sand to bitumen, or clay to bitumen. Bitumen to our bead is 13 dynes per centimetre. That discrepancy of 20 dynes per centimetre is energy that was released by the hydrocarbon into the system. So at 13 it won't stick to the hydrocarbon coating on the bead.
Next, the water that was in one of the jugs that was shaken around is getting pretty well clear. That takes one hour, natural decanting, which is a 50-year term in the tailings pond at Mildred Lake. There's a huge difference. If you remove all the hydrocarbons you alter the zeta potential on the clay particles. They can agglomerate and they settle. You don't have to add chemicals, no flocs whatsoever.
The real component here that is making a mess of the tailings is the hydrocarbon component. If you remove it, you now have something that's very easy to work with that you have in waste water treatment system plants. People know how to deal with flocs and clays and sand. It's standard procedure.