Patent ID: 8658029

Claim:
A method comprising: providing material comprising bitumen having a bitumen by volume content; mixing the material comprising bitumen with a first solvent at a rate of from 0.5 to 3.0 times the amount of bitumen by volume content of the material comprising bitumen and forming a first mixture, wherein the first mixture comprises a bitumen-enriched solvent phase; separating a first portion of the bitumen-enriched solvent phase from the first mixture and forming a bitumen-depleted tailings phase; and adding a second solvent to the bitumen-depleted tailings phase at a rate of from 0.5 to 1 times the amount of bitumen by volume content of the material comprising bitumen and separating a second portion of the bitumen-enriched solvent phase from the bitumen-depleted tailings phase; wherein the first solvent is a different type of solvent than the second solvent.