The oil sands mining and extraction processes in Canada produce large volumes of tailings that are a mixture of mainly water, clay, sand, chemicals and bitumen. This mixture is transported to tailings ponds, where gravity segregation occurs. During this process, a stable suspension called mature fine tailings (MFT) is formed, which requires many years to fully consolidate. Therefore, land reclamation and water recirculation become significant environmental issues. For this reason, it is important to understand the tailings content and their settling properties. This study uses the low field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technique to estimate the composition of tailings samples, through a bimodal compositional detection method. Tailings settling characteristics were also studied in the absence and presence of the typical chemical substances used in the industry to accelerate settling. The results show that the NMR technique can be a potential on-site fast measurement of composition and settling characteristics of tailings.