Bitumount
Bitumount is an abandoned industrial site on the east bank of the Athabasca River about 90 kilometres (60 mi) north of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta, Canada.[4] The raw oil sand was crushed and heated in hot water, and the oily substance that rose to the surface was skimmed off.[5] The company made its first sale of bitumen in Edmonton in 1930, and the Edmonton Journal announced that "those shipments of absolutely pure bitumen are the first and second and only shipments in the history of McMurray tar sands to be made for commercial purposes and it certainly (augurs) well for the future development of the much talked of tar sands of northern Alberta."[6] Fitzsimmons constructed a small upgrader and other facilities at Bitumount in 1937-1938, but oil prices remained low during the Great Depression and International Bitumen became insolvent.Interest in the Athabasca oil sands had declined, primarily due to the discovery of conventional petroleum at Leduc in 1947.