In the commercial slurry conditioning and flotation process applied to Athabasca oil sands, the primary bituminous froth can contain significant amounts of emulsified water and suspended solids. We have found that a modest adjustment can be made to the way primary froth is formed such that froth of higher quality is produced without sacrificing froth recovery or increasing tight emulsion-forming tendency. Our results suggest that a small chemical addition during the nascent froth process could lead to a substantial increase in the throughput capacity of froth handling and treatment plants. The beneficial chemical additives represent some rather unconventional process aids (such as polar organic solvents), added at unconventional stages during the processing (underwash or spray-wash treatments of forming froth).