Surface Mining going on in Alberta at teperatures below -40 C during winters.  Oil Sand is being delivered to Processing/Separation Plants, where Hot Water process separates Oil from Sand at nearly + 90 C. 

Thank you for your response, by way of introduction, I am an oil sands geologist with projects associated with the mining and thermal recoveries here in Alberta. My question is at what pressure point does unaltered but frozen bitumen sand fracture fail. This is not a mine plant processing treatment issue but that of mechanical strength. I am looking for quantitative lab data in the literature, if any exits, that I can extrapolate into geomorphological processes during the Pleistocene.

I've never seen anything on that topic, which is quite surprising.  I'll ask around and see if I can find out anything useful.

Paul, I worked for over 20 years at the Alberta Research Council, Heavy Oil&Oil Sands Department, Edmonton. I have never heard about any experimental data you are looking for. Most probably it does not exist. But, try to contact those, who are in Geo-Mechanics, they will know for sure if anything like that was ever measured.