Drying experiments were performed on asphaltene sediments obtained from n-alkane diluted bitumen and asphaltenes precipitated from solutions of toluene and an n-alkane. The diffusive evaporation from within the asphaltene particles (asphaltene-rich phase) is much slower than free solvent evaporation, and in theory, the amount of solvent in the asphaltene-rich phase can be determined from a change in the evaporation rate. In practice, the evaporation of solvent within the asphaltene-rich phase could not be distinguished from the evaporation of a discontinuous film around the particles. Therefore, the measured solvent contents represent an upper limit to the solvent in the asphaltene-rich phase. The solvent contents of the asphaltene-rich phases from n-heptane diluted bitumen and solutions of toluene and n-heptane ranged from 6.5 to 8 wt %. The solvent contents of different asphaltene solubility cuts were within the +/- 1 wt % repeatability of the experiments. The extent of washing of the sediment also had no significant effect on the solvent content. The n-pentane content of the asphaltene-rich phase from n-pentane diluted bitumen was approximately 4 wt 96, consistent with the lower solubility of asphaltenes in pentane relative to heptane. The drying experiments also demonstrated that the sediment became rigid at solvent contents of approximately 85 wt % equivalent to a porosity of approximately 90%. In other words, an asphaltene deposit may have a volume 10 times larger than the volume of the asphaltenes themselves.