William Mook wrote:

On Thursday, December 1, 2016 at 12:07:40 AM UTC+13, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article ,
says...

You are correct self replicating mining machines revolutionise mining.

Where are they today in mining?

Nowhere, because they DO NOT EXIST yet.

Bacteria that dissolve rock and plate containers with gold and copper on demand are already recovering copper and gold from copper mine tailings and spent copper mines today.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ia-mining.html


Note that your cite says "low grade ore", not 'tailings'. It also
says the use of the technology in something other than experiment is
at least 15 years out.



I would suggest you study the work of Diane Newman at Caltech. She bred bacteria that breathe rock and **** valuable metals like gold and copper. They're working in copper mine tailings today and are revolutionising mining industry.

Not self replicating mining machines that can be used on an asteroid in
the vacuum and cold of the asteroid belt.


I think its funny that you presume to know so much about things you know absolutely nothing about!

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-bacteria-space-earth.html


Did you bother to read your own cite? ONE bacteria does better in
microgravity (with a warm, oxygenated atmosphere) than it does on
Earth. Not relevant to your claim.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...geobacter.html


Did you even bother to read your own cite? Bacteria IN RIVER MUD. Not
relevant to your claim.


Look, we 'infect' a rich asteroid with an appropriately selected plaque of microbes, and harvest the materials for return to Earth.


Except there are no 'materials', since when you expose your microbes
to no atmosphere, deadly cold, and radiation those ****ers just die.

snip lunatice bull****


--
"Ordinarily he is insane. But he has lucid moments when he is
only stupid."
-- Heinrich Heine