System for recovering minerals from the seabed

A system for recovering desired materials from the seabed comprising:

• a surface vessel;
• an excavator on the seabed adapted to generate an ore slurry containing a desired material from the seabed;
• a lift system connected to the excavator and the surface vessel, the lift system adapted to convey the ore slurry from the from the excavator to a lift system output on the surface vessel;
• a feed preparation circuit on the surface vessel and connected to the lift system output, the feed preparation circuit adapted to process the ore slurry to produce a prepared ore slurry consisting essentially of seawater and solid particles within a desired size range;
• a leaching circuit on the surface vessel and connected to the feed preparation circuit, the leaching circuit adapted to dissolve the desired material from the ore slurry using a lixiviant to produce a pregnant leach slurry;
• a recovery circuit on the surface vessel and connected to the leaching circuit, the recovery circuit adapted to recover the desired material from the pregnant leach slurry using an ion exchange resin to produce a loaded resin and a leach waste material;
• a residue treatment circuit on the surface vessel and connected to the recovery circuit, the residue treatment circuit adapted to neutralize the leach waste material;
• a resin stripping circuit on the surface vessel and connected to the recovery circuit, the resin stripping circuit adapted to adapted to strip the desired materials from the loaded resin using an eluant to produce a pregnant eluant and a stripped resin;
• a precipitation circuit on the surface vessel and connected to the resin stripping circuit;
• the precipitation circuit adapted to precipitate the desired material from the pregnant eluant using a precipitant to produce the desired material and a barren eluant.