This is where we started. We were working on ionic liquids and based on stories about ducks and tailings ponds in Canada and plain old curiosity we mixed an oil sands sample with an imidazolium ionic liquid and some naphtha and got a great separation at ambient temperatures. See picture. Patent applications, etc., and some science followed, but after our initial excitement wore off we realized some practical difficulties stood in the way of implementation. Ionic liquids are expensive. Leaving just 0.5% on the extracted sand made the process totally uneconomic. So we moved on and we are now applying the same approach as our work on tailings – using salt and polymers to get a separation of bitumen from oil sands or oil from contaminated minerals. The technology works because in the presence of salts the strength of adhesion between sand particles and bitumen decreases by an order of magnitude (AFM work). The naphtha serves to lower the viscosity of the bitumen and promote separation. The salt/polymer solution essentially becomes a separating fluid, aiding separations. Note the clarity of the water and the absence of visible fines – the salt/polymer mixture doing its job! Some details are given in one of our essays, but for licensing and pilot work go to: