Characterization of unextractable organic matter associated with heavy minerals from oil sand

Considerable quantities of organic matter are associated with heavy metal minerals recovered from Suncor aqueous sludge. This organic matter is not extractable with common organic solvents. Attempts were made to concentrate this organic matter by dissolving the mineral matter in acids. Various soluble fractions were also obtained by extraction with methanol/benzene (1:4) after each dissolution step. All these fractions were analysed by elemental analysis, infrared, proton and \ub9\ub3C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye