Which asteroids in our solar system would you use for mining???

I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

On Mar 31, 4:14*pm, Sam Minewire wrote:
I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

Our Selene/moon. Got any problem with that?

~ BG

"Sam Minewire" wrote in message
...
I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

I'd pick out those with Gold, Silver or Platinum in them and not
bother with the rest.

On Mar 31, 5:14*pm, Sam Minewire wrote:
I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

If it had to be an asteroid, I'd look to Gaspra, Pallas, or Toutatis
based roughly on density. Take out plenty of insurance for the Earth
impactors you'd be charged with causing (whether you did or not).

David A. Smith

On Mar 31, 5:07*pm, dlzc wrote:
On Mar 31, 5:14*pm, Sam Minewire wrote:

I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

If it had to be an asteroid, I'd look to Gaspra, Pallas, or Toutatis
based roughly on density. *Take out plenty of insurance for the Earth
impactors you'd be charged with causing (whether you did or not).

David A. Smith

Our Selene/moon has valuable minerals and elements, including He3
that'll soon enough become worth $10B/tonne as our terrestrial fossil
fuel options dry up and/or become too bloody spendy.

Remember that Earth has been losing mass and its geomagnetic force at
the same time, so you can also worry about those if you like.

~ BG

"Sam Minewire" wrote in message
...
I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

It remains far cheaper to mine for these elements on Earth, and this will be
the case for some time to come. Silver is not a particularly valuable
metal, by the way, as its price is around 2% that of gold.

The main reason to consider mining asteroids is that some of them contain
high amounts of easily extracted iron and nickel in pure form, without the
need for polluting refinement from ore. Even then, it will be a long time
before it is economic to do this.

Current cost of launch to geosynchronous orbit is around $10,000/pound (454
gm). Cost to asteroid belt would be (a guess) about double that (more fuel,
more booster stages). That doesn't take into account the cost of a
specialised spacecraft.

The current price of gold is $925/troy ounce (31 gm). So unless the price
of gold soars to $2000-3000 per ounce it isn't even worth thinking about.
And gold prices tend to rise in times of economic crisis, when the
political/financial ability to mount big space missions is less.

The other problem is, suppose you mount a big mining operation and return to
Earth with tonnes and tonnes of these metals. You attempt to sell them on
the open market. The supply goes up--the price comes down, fast.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

On Apr 1, 12:08*am, "Mike Dworetsky"
wrote:
"Sam Minewire" wrote in message

...

I wonder if there are asteroids with Gold, Silver or
Platinum in our solar system.

Which asteroids would you use for mining???

It remains far cheaper to mine for these elements on Earth, and this will be
the case for some time to come. *Silver is not a particularly valuable
metal, by the way, as its price is around 2% that of gold.

The main reason to consider mining asteroids is that some of them contain
high amounts of easily extracted iron and nickel in pure form, without the
need for polluting refinement from ore. *Even then, it will be a long time
before it is economic to do this.

Current cost of launch to geosynchronous orbit is around $10,000/pound (454
gm). *Cost to asteroid belt would be (a guess) about double that (more fuel,
more booster stages). *That doesn't take into account the cost of a
specialised spacecraft.

The current price of gold is $925/troy ounce (31 gm). *So unless the price
of gold soars to $2000-3000 per ounce it isn't even worth thinking about.
And gold prices tend to rise in times of economic crisis, when the
political/financial ability to mount big space missions is less.

The other problem is, suppose you mount a big mining operation and return to
Earth with tonnes and tonnes of these metals. *You attempt to sell them on
the open market. *The supply goes up--the price comes down, fast.

--
Mike Dworetsky

He3 will soon enough become worth $10B/tonne ($10,000/gram)

Radium is already damn spendy, and our Selene/moon has lots of that
too,

~ BG