Deep sea mining apparatus and method
OwnerRichard E. Diggsinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A deep sea mining apparatus and method for mining mineral nodules from the ocean floor, comprises at least one surface ship and preferably a plurality of nodule harvesting or mining machines supported from the surface ship and resting on the ocean floor for movement along the ocean floor and including nodule gathering devices to gather the mineral nodules as the machine passes over the ocean floor. The nodule harvesting machines include separable, nodule-containing crates which, when full, are lifted to the surface where they are recovered by a surface ship. The crates are emptied of their contents and subsequently returned to the machines on the ocean floor to be refilled. The placement and guidance of the harvesting machines on the ocean floor is controlled by sonar devices and television cameras and the like.
Claims16
A deep sea mining apparatus for mining mineral nodules on the ocean floor, comprising at least one support ship floating in a body of water, at last one self-propelled nodule mining machine supported from the support ship and resting on the floor of the body of water for movement along the floor, control means connected with the support ship and with the machine for controlling operation of the machine, nodule gathering means carried by the machine for gathering nodules from the ocean floor, nodule collecting crate means carried by the machine for collecting and holding the nodules gathered by the nodule gathering means, said crate means separable from said machine, and lift means connected to the crate means and comprising an inflatable bag carried by the crate means, and means carried by the crate means for inflating the inflatable bag for lifting the crate means to the surface of the body of water when the crate means is filled with said nodules whereby said nodules may be recovered.
A deep sea mining apparatus for mining mineral nodules on the ocean floor, comprising at least one support ship floating on the body of water;
- a plurality of remote controlled, self-propelled nodule mining machines supported by and controlled from said support ship, said machines resting on the floor of the body of water for movement therealong, control means connected with the machines for effecting movement thereof in substantially straight, parallel paths along the floor, said control means comprising a plurality of spaced apart sonar devices mounted on skid devices located on the floor of the body of water, said skid devices being connected by cables to a cable anchoring device and thence to buoy means located on the surface of the water, said floor mounted sonar devices controlling movement of the mining machine via a sonar device mounted on the mining machine, said machines positioned in predetermined spaced relationship to one another to effect efficient and thorough mining of the nodules along a substantially straight path having a width approximately as great as the combined width of the paths of all of the machines, and such that each machine is out of the path of silt and the like stirred up by the other machines.
A method of conveying to the surface and recovering mineral nodules mined on the floor of a body of water, comprising placing a mining machine on the floor of the body of water and causing said machine to move along the floor of the body of water, gathering mineral nodules from the floor of the body of water with said machine incident to movement of the machine along the floor, placing said nodules in a crate removably carried by the machine, stopping movement of said machine when said crate is full and separating said crate from the machine, thereafter inflating a buoyant means carried by the crate and floating the crate to the surface, recovering the nodules from the crate, and returning the crate to the machine at the floor of the body of water to be refilled with nodules.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.