Contamination of bitumen products by mineral solids is an intractable problem in the oil sands industry. Clay minerals with a bitumen coating, a major component of the mineral solids contaminants in bitumen, adversely affect bitumen production in multiple ways: hindering bitumen extraction, hindering dewatering of extraction tailings, stabilizing water-in bitumen emulsions, lowering the quality of bitumen, and so on. In this review, the recent progresses in understanding these bitumen-coated clay particles are summarized, particularly focusing on the spatial distribution of the bitumen coating on clay surfaces and the effect of such coating on clay behaviors. Here, "bitumen coating" is defined as all types of irreversibly adsorbed organic matter on oil sands clay minerals, including (but not limited to) asphaltenes and humic materials. The patchy nature of this bitumen coating has been proven and visualized in several recent works where different approaches have been used, including quantitative nanomechanical atomic force microscopy, total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. The presence of a bitumen coating makes the clay particles behave "actively" in bitumen production processes, causing the clays to migrate to bitumen products, i.e., water-extracted bitumen froth and solvent-extracted bitumen. The available methods for removal of fine mineral solids from the bitumen products are described. This review also brings forward the challenges and opportunities for future research regarding the characterization and handling of oil sands clay minerals.