Patent ID: 8101068

Claim:
A process of regulating water content of oil sand ore comprising: putting in a container a sample charge of comminuted oil sand ore having a bulk volume (V t ) and inter granular voids; determining the weight (m o ) of the sample charge; filling the inter granular voids of the sample charge with inter granular water, where ρw is the density of the water; determining the weight (m a ) of the inter granular water; selecting a target specific gravity value (SG mix ) for the oil sand ore; calculating the volume of additional water, ΔV, to add to a sample charge of bulk volume V t to achieve the target specific gravity value (SG mix ) by solving the following equation: Δ ⁢ ⁢ V = V t · ( ( m o + m a ρ ⁢ ⁢ w · V t ) - SG mix SG mix - 1 ) + m a ρ ⁢ ⁢ w adding the volume ΔV of additional water per bulk volume V t of oil sand ore to be processed; and processing the oil sand ore including the volume ΔV of additional water to concentrate the bitumen.