Oil recovery from tar sands

Claim 1

A process for the extraction and recovery of oil from oil wet tar sands comprising: (a) introducing an oil wet tar sand, a surfactant, said surfactant being an inorganic polymeric complex having the general structural formula--[M'M"(NH--H) x M")] n wherein M' represents an alkali metal, M" represents one or more non-alkaline metals of Group I-VIII of the Periodic Table, x represents the total valence of M' and M" and n represents the numbers of repeating units in the inorganic polymeric complex, and a fluid selected from the group consisting of at least one of water, steam, air or mixtures thereof into a fluidization zone; (b) introducing at least one of air, steam or a combination thereof into said fluidization zone so as to establish vigorous fluidization conditions in said fluidization zone thereby forming a multiphase mixture therein comprising a solid phase consisting essentially of sand particles, at least one liquid phase which is one of oil or water, and an oil containing froth phase; (c) withdrawing said multiphase mixture from said fluidization zone; (d) introducing said multiphase mixture into a separation zone wherein said multiphase mixture is separated into a sand phase and an oil containing liquid phase; (e) separating said oil containing liquid phase into an oil phase and an aqueous phase; and (f) recovering said oil phase as a product of the process.