Syncrude Canada Limited has announced plans to extend the life of its Mildred Lake oilsands mine by about a decade.

Canadian Oil Sands, which owns the biggest slice of the massive mine, says the MLX project will make use of existing equipment and environmental infrastructure at the site.

Assuming it receives regulatory approval, construction and spending would begin in the next 10 years.

The Syncrude mine, north of Fort McMurray, churned out an average of 359,500 barrels of crude per day in August.

Spokesperson Cheryl Robb says the new mines will open after the north project ceases operations.

“What these two mining areas will do will replace the bitumen that we’re getting out of the north mine,” Robb tells 660News.  “So the north mine will deplete that deposit, and when that’s depleted then we’ll move into these new areas.”

The other Syncrude partners include Imperial Oil, Suncor, Nexen, Chinese state-owned firm Sinopec, Mocal energy and Murphy Energy.