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

Brine is probably very valuable.

If we make it a slurry, perhaps we could use it to pump to unpopulated areas with endorheic lakes like the Salt Lake or Salton Sea, then mine and refine the resulting slurry.[0]

The concern is the brine getting into the atmosphere -- that can likely be mitigated.

[0] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gold.html

Desal plants use static mixers to mix the brine with a bunch of ocean water and pump it back out. The specifics depend on the local ecology and ocean currents but it’s a matter of making the outfall pipes long enough (they’re kilometers long usually).