Tailings sand associated with oil sands mining contains saline process-affected pore-water which can have a detrimental impact on the performance of reclamation covers. A reclamation cover site, located at the Syncrude Canada Ltd.’s South West Sand Storage facility (SWSS), consisted of 45 cm of cover soil over tailings sand. The site was instrumented in 2001 to measure real-time local meteorology, soil temperature, water content and suction over an eight-year period. A one-dimensional numerical model (VADOSE/W) was created to calculate moisture fluxes through the cover/tailings interface over a long-term period (51 years). A pore-water volume method was then used to evaluate the potential risk of salt transport into the overlying cover soil. The long-term modelling demonstrated that the cumulative water flux across the cover/tailings interface is downward, towards the water table, when the water table is deeper than 3 m below the cover/tailings interface; although the water flux across this interface in any single year may be upward. The risk of cover salinisation due to the upward movement of saline tailings pore-water from the underlying water table under these conditions was low (less than one occurrence in over 50 years).