About
Heather has a Ph.D. and B.Sc. Co-op in materials engineering and has more than 10 years of expertise post-graduation in advanced ore characterization, fundamentals of tailings, water treatment and the impact of clay minerals on oil extraction and tailings.
Heather has a passion for clays and tailings and is working towards solving the tailings issue for the oil sands industry. In 2019 Heather was selected as a SheInnovator in Alberta, recognizing her work on solving complex challenges in the province.
Specialization(s)
advanced ore characterization, fundamentals of tailings, water treatment, impact of clay minerals on oil extraction and tailings
Partners and industry collaborators
Canadian Natural, Imperial, Suncor, Syncrude, Teck, Graymont Ltd., SNF, BASF, Thurber Engineering Ltd., Bureau Veritas, Enersoft Inc
Projects and initiatives
- A simple, rapid, and directional desiccation-freeze-thaw dewatering method of fluid fine tailings.
- Characterizing polymer flocculation of fluid fine tailings.
- Bugs and Veggies as Tailings Management Tools
Published work
- Kaminsky, H., Ghuzi, M., Sedgwick, A., Li, Y. and A. Vietti, 2024, The use of methylene blue index in mine and tailings planning, in A.B. Fourie & D. Reid (eds), Paste 2024: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 159-170
- Reid, D., Kaminsky, H. and A.B. Fourie, 2024, Some observations on the effects of polymer degradation on geotechnical behaviour, in A.B. Fourie & D. Reid (eds), Paste 2024: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 151-158,
- Li, Y., Kaminsky H., Sadighian, A., Sun, Y. S., Murphy, F., Gong, Y., Ghuzi, M., and U. Rima, 2022, Impact of Chemical and Physical Treatments on Freeze-Thaw Dewatering of Fluid Fine Tailings, Journal of Cold Regions Science & Technology 193, 103385.
- Ng, J., Sun, R., Rizvi, S., Sedgwick, A., McGlip, L., Kaminsky, H., Qureshi, T, Gapasin, J, Ortiz, L., and B. Battle, 2021, Automated clay analyzers to rapidly measure methylene blue index for oil sands and mining slurries, Tailings & Mine Waste.
- Sasar, M., Johnston, C., Kaminsky, H., and M. Santagata, 2021, Oscillatory rheometry to characterize polymer flocculation of fluid fine tailings, Rheologica Acta.
- Cossey H.L., Batycky, A.E., Kaminsky, H., and A.C. Ulrich, 2021, Geochemical Stability of Oil Sands Tailings in Mine Closure Landforms, Minerals, 11(8):830.
- Li Y., Kaminsky, H., Romero Calducho, C., Gong, X.Y., Ghuzi, M., and J. Tacas, 2021, Assessing dewatering performance of treated fluid fine tailings with a modified bench-scale filter press, Tailings and Mine Waste.
- Li Y, Kaminsky H., Gong X.Y., Sun Y.S., Ghuzi M. and A. Sadighian, 2021, What Affects Dewatering Performance of High Density Slurry?, Minerals,11(7):761.
- Zhu, Y., Gong, Y., Kaminsky, H. Chae, M., Mussone, P., and D.C. Bressler, 2021, Using Specified Risk Materials-Based Peptides for Oil Sands Fluid Fine Tailings Management, Materials, 14(7), 1582.
- Chigbo, C., Schoonmaker, A., Sun, S., Collins, V., Kaminsky, H., Walton- Sather, K., de Lucas Pardo , M., and F. van Rees, 2021, Case study assessment examining wholistic effects of deploying worms and plants into oil sands tailings, Tailings and Mine Waste.
Courses