| 摘要 |
A method of recovering a deposit from the sea bed using a surface vessel (20) untethered from the sea bed and first and second suction vehicles (27; 30), which traverse the sea bed to suck up the deposit and are each connected to the surface vessel by a respective flexible riser (26; 29), along which a slurry of deposit is transferred from suction vehicles to surface vessel. The method comprises moving of first and second suction vehicles to and fro across sea bed in a plurality of lanes such that they travel substantially further than the surface vessel, turning or reversing each vehicle at the end of each lane in a manner such that the lanes are adjacent to one another to mine the deposit substantially without gaps between adjacent lanes. Only the suction vessels rest on the sea bed. |
