I'm asking naively and honestly: is there a solution to brine? Believe it's pumped directly back into ocean at the moment.

Can you explain this problem for those unfamiliar?

brine can be used for mineral extraction.

Two step forwards one step back. Doesn't mean the step back made the two step forward not good. I was not familiar with the concept of brine. I thought we would extract the salt from the water and store it. Maybe use it for construction material like with the CO2 extracted from the atmosphere. I'm not an expert and I might have the Dunning-Kruger effect on this. It might be a lot harder than I can imagine/know at this moment but it might still be worth it and necessary.