The present invention provides a system and method for bitumen recovery and tailings consolidation, wherein the system comprises an integrated bitumen recovery apparatus to recover bitumen from tailings or slurred oil sands ores and separate coarse sand from fine tailings, an tailings thickening apparatus to concentrate fine tailings, an tailings placement apparatus to place the thickened fine tailings and the coarse sand in a dedicated disposal area (DDA) or in a pit in such a way that the surface of the mixed deposit can be trafficable soon after their disposal, and a bitumen froth treatment apparatus to clean the recovered bitumen froth; and the method comprises a process for treating bitumen froth collected from the integrated bitumen recovery apparatus, an adverse impact minimization process to minimize/eliminate chemical's adverse impacts on bitumen extraction and a tailings consolidation process to consolidate tailings deposit to a trafficable surface soon after their disposal in a DDA by using either a lump fine and coarse sand or an alternatively layered fine and coarse sand placement.