Commercial Magnafloc 1011 (Percol 727) polymer and in-house synthesised Al-PAM polymer were used to flocculate oil sands tailings that were derived from low and high fines oil sands ores Fines are defined as mineral solids less than 44 mu m The performance of polymers was evaluated in terms of tailings settling, filtration rate, and final moisture content of tilter cakes Both polymers were shown to effectively flocculate the derived oil sands tailings and hence to enhance tailings settling Al-PAM performed very well as a filtration aid The final moisture content of the filter cake obtained from tailings derived from the low fines ore was 6 6 +/- 1 2 wt % and that from the high fines ore was 16.9 +/- 0 8 wt % This class of polymer can provide an alternative approach for oil sands tailings disposal that has the potential to eliminate tailings ponds However, the commercial Magnafloc 1011 polymer was found ineffective as a filtration aid for the two tailings tested in this study