Sea bed mining is the process that involves extracting minerals from the sea floor by dredging sand or lifting materials. There are two known forms of extraction from the seabed. The continuous line bucket system and the hydraulic suction system.
The continuous line bucket system is preferred for nodule collection. It is done by running from the sea floor to the surface of the sea where a ship or the mining platform extracts the mineral. Hydraulic suction mining is done by lowering a pipe to the seafloor which transfers nodules up to the mining ship. Another pipe runs from the ship to the sea floor to the area of the mining site.
