The present invention relates to a system and its equipments to collect mineral ores on the seabed and to float them up to the sea surface by utilizing the buoyancy of a liquid having a specific gravity less than that of water at room temperature. It is an underwater navigator capable of autonomous navigation that descends at a specific gravity of around 1.0 with a ballast that cancels buoyancy when descending from the sea surface, and ascends at a specific gravity of around 1.0 by exchanging mineral ores with the ballast on the seabed. On the seafloor, it is accompanied by a device that collects seabed mineral ores for the underwater vehicle.

A piece of submarine mining equipment comprises an equipment body, a plurality of adaptive submarine mining collectors and respective mineral delivery pipes. The equipment body and the adaptive submarine mining collectors are connected through the mineral delivery pipes. The lengths, stretching out of the equipment body, of the mineral delivery pipes can be adjusted under control. The adaptive submarine mining collectors are provided with tracked traveling mechanisms and can autonomously travel under control. An underwater detector is used for detecting the submarine topography and mineral distribution in the vicinity of an operation area, and the traveling path of the submarine mining collectors and a mineral storage vehicle is reasonably planned according to detected information. The multiple adaptive submarine mining collectors simultaneously and independently work and are made light and small, thus reducing damage of mining operations to the submarine ecological environment. The equipment body can travel along flat submarine paths and avoid rough paths. Horizontal vortexes induced by the mining collectors can enhance the mining effect and improve the collecting power under unit power consumption so that fewer water pumps with smaller sizes can be configured, and the mining collectors have a smaller principle dimension, thereby greatly reducing energy consumption and being more environmentally friendly.

A system and method of off shore mining for retrieval and extraction of heavy mineral concentrate from placer deposits or other suitable materials. The system comprises a dredge vessel and a barge, coupled in conjunction to the dredge vessel. The dredge vessel having thereon a dredging unit, at least one gravity separator and spiral separators for procurement of total heavy minerals from dredged sediment and debris. The barge is configured to acquire and process the total heavy minerals, wherein the barge has thereon at least one magnetic separator, electro-magnetic separators, and density separators for separation of desired minerals based on their physical properties. The system further comprises at least one discharge conduit for tailing of wastes, leftover after extraction and separation of desired minerals, back into water bodies.

In some embodiments, a system may include a harvesting unit configured to operate under water to traverse and extract gas from clathrate hydrate deposits. The harvesting unit can include a housing defining an enclosure at least partially open along a bottom portion to receive a clathrate slurry associated with a selected one of the clathrate hydrate deposits. The harvesting unit may further include a separator chamber within the housing defining a negative pressure and configured to receive the clathrate slurry and a skirt coupled to the enclosure adjacent to the bottom portion and configured to form a flexible barrier between the enclosure and an external environment. The skirt may be formed from a plurality of elements configured to allow fluid flow therethrough.

The present invention relates to a system for collecting, lifting, and recovering seabed mineral resources, specifically, a device wherein hydrogen gas is evolved on the seabed, resources are lifted by the buoyancy of the gas to the sea surface, and the hydrogen gas which has become an excess buoyancy source during the lifting and recovering is absorbed into an organic substance including toluene, thereby yielding hydrogenated compounds including cyclomethylhexane to recover the energy required for hydrogen gas production.

A system and method of off shore mining for retrieval and extraction of heavy mineral concentrate from placer deposits or other suitable materials. The system comprises a dredge vessel and a barge, coupled in conjunction to the dredge vessel. The dredge vessel having thereon a dredging unit, at least one gravity separator and spiral separators for procurement of total heavy minerals from dredged sediment and debris. The barge is configured to acquire and process the total heavy minerals, wherein the barge has thereon at least one magnetic separator, electro-magnetic separators, and density separators for separation of desired minerals based on their physical properties. The system further comprises at least one discharge conduit for tailing of wastes, leftover after extraction and separation of desired minerals, back into water bodies.

A method for recovering rare-earth mud including steps of: (A) penetrating a mud gathering pipe into a layer containing rare-earth mud under the seafloor, (B) preparing a slurry containing a rare earth by loosening rare-earth mud in the mud gathering pipe, and (C) transferring the slurry through a mud raising pipe. A rare-earth mud recovery system including: a mud gathering pipe configured to penetrate into a layer containing rare-earth mud under a seafloor; a stirring device configured to loosen rare-earth mud in the mud gathering pipe; and a mud raising pipe connected to the mud gathering pipe.

Systems and methods for recovering and concentrating rare earth elements from seabed sediment deposits using seabed excavators and shipboard processing systems.

A seafloor nodule concentrating system is provided. The seafloor nodule concentrating system has a surface vessel and an undersea steering vehicle secured to the surface vessel. The undersea steering vehicle is adapted to be towed by the surface vessel. The seafloor nodule concentrating system also has a nodule collecting apparatus connected to the undersea steering vehicle. The nodule collecting apparatus is located on the seafloor. The seafloor nodule concentrating system also has a position determination device adapted to determine the position of the nodule collecting apparatus and communicate position information of the nodule collecting apparatus to the undersea steering vehicle and surface vessel.

A system and method for stockpiling material on the seafloor, the system and method using seafloor collection machines, such auxiliary or bulk cutters or collection machines, to capture seafloor material to be stockpiled. The captured seafloor material is carried in slurry form over a flexible transfer pipe to an outlet at a desired seafloor site. In a preferred form the outlet is mounted in a seafloor stockpiling hood that sits on the seafloor at the desired seafloor site and captures and contains slurry from the outlet while allowing egress of water. The captured seafloor material can then be extracted to a surface vessel.