Other Worldly Mining and Dozing

We were back at it again in this vlog, checking out Alberta's oil sands - in an environment so unique it felt like stepping onto another planet! This time, we explored the vast operations of Suncor's Millennium mine in collaboration with North American Construction Group.
The project included a deep dive into some old tailings ponds, a crucial part of the mining process where oil sand is mixed with hot water, separating the oil and leaving behind sand known as tailings. The challenge? These ponds sit on top of more oil sand that needs to be mined. So... bulldozers push the material into the pond, solidifying the muck and preparing it for mining.
From marveling at the giant Hitachi EX5500 and EX8000 excavators to explaining how a tailings pond becomes a viable mining location, this vlog captures the details of oil sand mining in an environment that can only be described as 'OTHERWORLDLY.'
Stay tuned till the end as we discuss the complex process of keeping machinery ready for unexpected breakdowns and maintaining the efficiency of massive 400-ton haul trucks.
Stay dirty!
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0:00 Intro
0:31 Location Reveal: Alberta Oil Sands
0:42 North American Construction Introduction
1:08 Contracting Work Overview
2:10 Exploration of an Old Tailings Pond
3:34 Stripping the First Layer at a Lower Elevation
4:26 Changing Teeth on Mining Machinery
5:23 Building a Ramp into the Pit
7:31 Why Dump Trucks Smoke in Cold Weather
8:28 Counting the Equipment Used
9:02 Closing Thoughts and Thanks

[@guyneeser2029]

Thanks again aaron. Everyone NEEDS to know about this stuff, because thats the stuff we ALL buy at walmart!!!!....

[@tylerr3469]

I love that you spent so much time here in Alberta!

[@AaronWitt]

there's too much to see

[@philkessel8162]

@@AaronWitt did you get to go to syncrude Aurora?

[@jimbeam2705]

I love the dump guides hanging from the boom to help judge where the bucket needs to be for dumping into the trucks. Working for a company that had to dig out useless material to get to the desirable material costs a lot of money.

[@w.p.59]

I worked north of there for Suncor at Firebag, awesome experience!

[@carlfalt174]

It's a beautiful sight to see this huge environmental cleanup operation that also provides useful oil and ashfault for our use.

[@davidanalyst671]

Okay, watch any frame in this video and tell me what is frozen overburden and show me what is oil sand. I TRIPLE FCKING DOG DARE YOU. I will eat 10 pound of oil sand if you can find one god damned bush or one god damned frozen tree in this video!!!! The oil sand company is pulling oil OUT OF THE SAND. The oil company is the environmentalist!! they are decontaminating the ground.

[@Kittoes0124]

Propaganda much? This is about as far from an environmental clean up operation as one can get...

[@ScottBurcham2838]

You do realize oil sand is naturally occurring. It's raw and unrefined. Not like from an oil spill on the beach...

[@carlfalt174]

@@ScottBurcham2838 oil is oil

[@stevenkerry3101]

the Absolute scale of this is mind blowing .

[@MrBOOM546]

The craziest part is this is just one of the mines, there’s 3 more that are almost just as big in the area

[@timtom7097]

Sweet. Early bird gets the cool contrustion machines. I use to sneak onto construction sites as a kid to look at the machines.

[@rp1645]

Thank you so much for explaining the material moving huge operation. Its amazing the size and scope. Big thanks for showing the tooth replacement on front Hydraulic shovel. WOW the Wt. Of that tooth😊

[@AaronWitt]

thank you for watching

[@glenlaughlin6547]

Hey, nice to see you guys again. Keep up the great vids.

[@montreuilvincent8291]

some love for those hitachi shovels !!!

[@freestyleXX111]

Aaron , it would be great if you can work aside the cummins guys in fort Mac and see the QSK in the 980s and the shovels and see just how big the engines they are and what it takes to maintain them !

[@pittytheorphan7687]

Hands down my favourite video cause I work for North American at the fort hills mine about an hour north of fort Mac!

[@AaronWitt]

that's awesome!!

[@coffeesocket2607]

Love these videos, thanks for making them. Would love to see a bit more about the "how its made" and the crew that you work with :)

[@JTwelder.]

Great video!

[@diegobob3306]

Enjoying your oil sands content, very cool to see the reality of what I've abstractly been aware of all these years. Hope you can do a bit more oil sands content... and possibly explain how much more there is to be mined... are they working the last of an isolated pocket of oil sand, making the most of what they have left? Or are there decades more oil sand to be mined in this area, or how many more years (aprox.) do they think they have left at the current rate. Have really enjoyed your channel, learned a lot

[@CaptainNelson230]

Love the vids!

[@AaronWitt]

thank you!!

[@frankparsons1426]

Hello Aaron Witt. I am a Haul Truck Operator at Suncor and I am, of course, very excited about these videos. I am also an artist with an exhibition coming up this fall in Fort Mcmurray. If I credit your videos appropriately can I use screen-shots from them as references for artwork I can present to our community?

[@UncleManuel]

Day 5 of the Canada trip: Aaron is still cold. 😁😜😇

[@rhunter3406]

Would like for this guy to see the diamond mines in the NWT in the winter(-60 cold is definitely and experience) AND in the summer(24 hour daylight thanks to the summer solstice)

[@kenwelch6984]

Hey aaron...I live in Ontario Canada...on the big excavator, the Hitachi's EX8000...I forget what them cone looking things hanging on chains...2 big yellow cones on chains, you see them as the door opens to release the material... what is the purpose of them, only on the huge machines...that size...do u know what I'm talking about...

[@matthewkosowan2360]

so the shovel operator doesn't damage the trucks

[@DeanZimmerman-rt6gh]

❤

[@broomfieldsdual-sport]

Company started with a mini shovel and now look at em 😂

[@AaronWitt]

not bad huh

[@sebastianroth5289]

I’d love to see inside view from electric shovels cab!!

[@enggalest6756]

Come to Indonesia, mr. Witt

[@Duvstep910]

yk for big ass mining trucks the horns sound like they come off a honda lol

[@tira2145]

When it gets dark, how are the lights on the haul trucks? How do they know where to go?

[@yermudder]

the headlights are very bright but when it gets very dry and dusty we kind of have to just know where we are going. it’s not so bad up out of the mine on top but when you’re down in the bottom of it with a lot of traffic sometimes you’ll have 0 visibility. but we have haul trucks that spray water to minimize that.

[@tira2145]

@@yermudder Thanks. Is there any kind of navigation system to follow to different dump sites?

[@yermudder]

@tira2145 a physical map lol

[@floydwilliams3321]

How cold is it there?

[@muckfoot-4093]

I want to get in there

[@MrKittke]

I need to know the song used in the intro!!!

[@kingman_yubi]

hello, excuse me, I'm from Indonesia, how do I get to work in a mine in Canada, with experience in operator Dump trucks, OHT 777D, 785B, 789B/C/D, Komar HD785-7, Hitachi EH 4500/5000, Dozer Cat D10R/ Q, Komatsu D375A/Galeo, Thank you.

[@sound_photos]

What are those yellow things hanging on at 6:44?

[@Mark-re6wp]

spotting cones. you line your box up with them to be in align with the bucket

[@linggayoni]

When you will going to Indonesia

[@taurnocerostradeguides]

Hi Can we take a look into the superchargers/turbochargers that power these things next time daddy? Kind regards. Roger.

[@MikeMills-vd6qu]

welcome to canada.... put another jacket in your baggage next time

[@nycsox987]

I believe you had uploaded a new video a couple of weeks ago that was about 17 minutes or so long. It appears you deleted it and now there's only been shorts. Politely, what gives???

[@woopigsooie792]

Its hard to believe that its profitable.

[@SergioClaudio]

You need some Canadian approved clothes, specially up there 😂 not the US spec.

[@AaronWitt]

I know I'm an amateur