Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
So I only calculated the price of the precious metals. The base metals are, in fact, worth much more than the precious metals in an H chondrite, especially the Ni. Assuming only the iron in the metal phase is recoverable, an H chondrite would seem to be worth around $50/ton in Fe, $20/ton Co and nearly $300/ton in Ni. If you include this, meteorites are worth a lot more than dehydrated humans. But of course, in a recovered asteroid, the real value is probably in the water. A 14,000 ton carbonaceous asteroid could have 1000 tons of water in it. Here we are worried not about what we could sell it for on Earth, but what it would cost to get that much water into space or recover it from the Moon. Jeff On 4/7/2013 1:14 AM, Alan Rubin wrote: According to coolquiz.com, the commercial value of the substances in the average human body is $4.50. The average adult man has a mass of about 80 kg; the average adult woman, about 60 kg. So, the average adult person is about 70 kg. This indicates that the average adult is worth about $64/MT, nearly two-thirds the commercial value of a chondrite according to Jeff's calculation. I'm sure that there are philosophical implications to this, but I'm tired and can't figure them out. Alan Alan Rubin Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics University of California 3845 Slichter Hall 603 Charles Young Dr. E Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 phone: 310-825-3202 e-mail: aeru...@ucla.edu website: http://cosmochemists.igpp.ucla.edu/Rubin.html - Original Message - From: Jeff Grossman jngross...@gmail.com To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 6:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) I just did my own calculation... at pure metal prices, I find most chondrites are worth around $100/metric ton, with Pt dominating the calculation. Of the major groups of carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites, H chondrites are worth the most... I get $162/ton ($80 of which is Pt, $25 Pd, $24 Ir, $12 Au, $10 Os, $8 Rh, $3 Ru). I would put our 15-m radius C-type asteroid at around $1.5M worth of precious metals. Can somebody else reproduce $15B, which is 1 x what I got? I used the following prices in $/kg: $2,733RU $38,585RH $23,441PD $868AG $3,500RE $12,219OS $32,154IR $49,486PT $50,836AU H chondrites have the following concentrations in kg/ton (which is the same as mg/g) RU0.00111 RH0.000207 PD0.0011 AG0.841 RE0.8 OS0.00082 IR0.00074 PT0.0016 AU0.00023 And our 15-m radius C asteroid with density=1 g/cc weighs 14000 metric tons. So Pt in this asteroid is 49486 $/kg * 0.0016 Kg/ton * 14000 tons = $1,100,000 Did I mess something up? I'm tired, so maybe I did something wrong. If you use an iron meteorite, you can multiply by 5. Jeff On 4/6/2013 5:47 PM, Michael Mulgrew wrote: Not to worry, executives from De Beers are forming a corporation to take care of just that. Michael in so. Cal. On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:47 AM, Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com wrote: The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering it to Earth like so many storks bringing babies from outer space cost effective? It was estimated that a single 30m asteroid might yield $25-50 billion worth of Pt, more or less 40,000 to 80,000kg at 'today's prices'. The world's total Pt output was 192,000kg in 2010. From the 'Economist' article link (BTW - my favorite magazine, Sterling) we learn, ...the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare. Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap. The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardware that makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect on the price of platinum when a mountain of the stuff arrives from outer space. . leaving me calculating the 'present value' of all this precious metal in 'Bitcoins' :) Happy week-end. Kevin Kichinka Rio del Oro, Santa Ana, Costa Rica www.theartofcollectingmeteorites.com 'The Global Meteorite Price Report - 2013' mars...@gmail.com
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
Hi, I think that the real problem may come from getting approval from the: United Nations Department Of Near-Earth Exploitation Thanks, Peter -Original Message- From: meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of bill kies Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 3:56 AM To: Michael Mulgrew Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering it to Earth like so many storks bringing babies from outer space cost effective? It was estimated that a single 30m asteroid might yield $25-50 billion worth of Pt, more or less 40,000 to 80,000kg at 'today's prices'. The world's total Pt output was 192,000kg in 2010. From the 'Economist' article link (BTW - my favorite magazine, Sterling) we learn, ...the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare. Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap. The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering it to Earth like so many storks bringing babies from outer space cost effective? It was estimated that a single 30m asteroid might yield $25-50 billion worth of Pt, more or less 40,000 to 80,000kg at 'today's prices'. The world's total Pt output was 192,000kg in 2010. From the 'Economist' article link (BTW - my favorite magazine, Sterling) we learn, ...the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare. Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap. The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardware that makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect on the price of platinum when a mountain of the stuff arrives from outer space. . leaving me calculating the 'present value' of all this precious metal in 'Bitcoins
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
Hi Folks, The money always grabs the headlines, but there is great potential for asteroid mining once we establish an infrastructure to support routine interplanetary travel. Until such a time, it's all pipe dreams. The best we can hope for now are small, unmanned, sample return missions. Precious metals aside, the asteroid belt is loaded with other elements and minerals that are useful and valuable. Rare earth isn't so rare on asteroids I would imagine. As far as solar systems go, we have a very good one. If life was a big video game simulation, a solar system like our's would be the result of a cheat code. We have an enormous amount of resources and advantages afforded to us because of the layout and contents of our home solar system. Once we learn to get along and stop bickering over everything, we'll get off this rock and start advancing as a species again - right now, it seems like we are stuck in an evolutionary quagmire while we try to shed our negative traits such as greed and violence. It would be nice if took a big step up as a species and my grandson or great-grandson might have the opportunity to be an asteroid miner, or interplanetary transport pilot, or First Battalion Space Marine (Sol Regiment). Best regards, MikeG -- - Web - http://www.galactic-stone.com Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone Twitter - http://twitter.com/GalacticStone Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/galacticstone RSS - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516 - On 4/6/13, Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com wrote: The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
The 2010 stat is not cumulative. It's the total platinum mine production just for 2010. Platinum is just the tip of the Iceber asteroid. There are even greater amount of other metals contained in that 30m asteroid. The question is if they can stay in business when prices are depressed. If so they would drive many terrestrial mines out of business (which would help prices recover somewhat). And if low cost of metals can be sustained, the metals can be used in far more applications and would make a lot of new technology possible. A huge benefit for all people, no matter their socioeconomic level. Dr. Lewis at the U of AZ has done a lot of interesting work on space mining if people want to learn more. From: Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com To: bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Saturday, April 6, 2013 6:47 AM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
One quaint question for the astronomy buffs and mathematicians out there. What affect would the increase in mass to the earth, from mining most of the asteroids, and then mining, say 5% our moon, (or another planet's moon) and adding that mass to earth, have on the earth's orbit, rotation, gravity? Fred H The 2010 stat is not cumulative. It's the total platinum mine production just for 2010. Platinum is just the tip of the Iceber asteroid. There are even greater amount of other metals contained in that 30m asteroid. The question is if they can stay in business when prices are depressed. If so they would drive many terrestrial mines out of business (which would help prices recover somewhat). And if low cost of metals can be sustained, the metals can be used in far more applications and would make a lot of new technology possible. A huge benefit for all people, no matter their socioeconomic level. Dr. Lewis at the U of AZ has done a lot of interesting work on space mining if people want to learn more. From: Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com To: bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Saturday, April 6, 2013 6:47 AM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
Not to worry, executives from De Beers are forming a corporation to take care of just that. Michael in so. Cal. On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:47 AM, Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com wrote: The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering it to Earth like so many storks bringing babies from outer space cost effective? It was estimated that a single 30m asteroid might yield $25-50 billion worth of Pt, more or less 40,000 to 80,000kg at 'today's prices'. The world's total Pt output was 192,000kg in 2010. From the 'Economist' article link (BTW - my favorite magazine, Sterling) we learn, ...the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare. Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap. The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardware that makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
I just did my own calculation... at pure metal prices, I find most chondrites are worth around $100/metric ton, with Pt dominating the calculation. Of the major groups of carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites, H chondrites are worth the most... I get $162/ton ($80 of which is Pt, $25 Pd, $24 Ir, $12 Au, $10 Os, $8 Rh, $3 Ru). I would put our 15-m radius C-type asteroid at around $1.5M worth of precious metals. Can somebody else reproduce $15B, which is 1 x what I got? I used the following prices in $/kg: $2,733RU $38,585RH $23,441PD $868AG $3,500RE $12,219OS $32,154IR $49,486PT $50,836AU H chondrites have the following concentrations in kg/ton (which is the same as mg/g) RU0.00111 RH0.000207 PD0.0011 AG0.841 RE0.8 OS0.00082 IR0.00074 PT0.0016 AU0.00023 And our 15-m radius C asteroid with density=1 g/cc weighs 14000 metric tons. So Pt in this asteroid is 49486 $/kg * 0.0016 Kg/ton * 14000 tons = $1,100,000 Did I mess something up? I'm tired, so maybe I did something wrong. If you use an iron meteorite, you can multiply by 5. Jeff On 4/6/2013 5:47 PM, Michael Mulgrew wrote: Not to worry, executives from De Beers are forming a corporation to take care of just that. Michael in so. Cal. On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:47 AM, Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com wrote: The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
Hi Jeff and all! Iam not clear on you $/kg prices. I think maybe there will be refining costs on earth that are not accounted for?? For Pt, it would probably need to be extracted in whatever mineral base it is in. That would be likely for any element or mineral being reduced to it's pure form. Jim Jim Wooddell - Mobile Jeff Grossman jngross...@gmail.com wrote: I just did my own calculation... at pure metal prices, I find most chondrites are worth around $100/metric ton, with Pt dominating the calculation. Of the major groups of carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites, H chondrites are worth the most... I get $162/ton ($80 of which is Pt, $25 Pd, $24 Ir, $12 Au, $10 Os, $8 Rh, $3 Ru). I would put our 15-m radius C-type asteroid at around $1.5M worth of precious metals. Can somebody else reproduce $15B, which is 1 x what I got? I used the following prices in $/kg: $2,733RU $38,585RH $23,441PD $868AG $3,500RE $12,219OS $32,154IR $49,486PT $50,836AU H chondrites have the following concentrations in kg/ton (which is the same as mg/g) RU0.00111 RH0.000207 PD0.0011 AG0.841 RE0.8 OS0.00082 IR0.00074 PT0.0016 AU0.00023 And our 15-m radius C asteroid with density=1 g/cc weighs 14000 metric tons. So Pt in this asteroid is 49486 $/kg * 0.0016 Kg/ton * 14000 tons = $1,100,000 Did I mess something up? I'm tired, so maybe I did something wrong. If you use an iron meteorite, you can multiply by 5. Jeff On 4/6/2013 5:47 PM, Michael Mulgrew wrote: Not to worry, executives from De Beers are forming a corporation to take care of just that. Michael in so. Cal. On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:47 AM, Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com wrote: The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
According to coolquiz.com, the commercial value of the substances in the average human body is $4.50. The average adult man has a mass of about 80 kg; the average adult woman, about 60 kg. So, the average adult person is about 70 kg. This indicates that the average adult is worth about $64/MT, nearly two-thirds the commercial value of a chondrite according to Jeff's calculation. I'm sure that there are philosophical implications to this, but I'm tired and can't figure them out. Alan Alan Rubin Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics University of California 3845 Slichter Hall 603 Charles Young Dr. E Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 phone: 310-825-3202 e-mail: aeru...@ucla.edu website: http://cosmochemists.igpp.ucla.edu/Rubin.html - Original Message - From: Jeff Grossman jngross...@gmail.com To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 6:24 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) I just did my own calculation... at pure metal prices, I find most chondrites are worth around $100/metric ton, with Pt dominating the calculation. Of the major groups of carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites, H chondrites are worth the most... I get $162/ton ($80 of which is Pt, $25 Pd, $24 Ir, $12 Au, $10 Os, $8 Rh, $3 Ru). I would put our 15-m radius C-type asteroid at around $1.5M worth of precious metals. Can somebody else reproduce $15B, which is 1 x what I got? I used the following prices in $/kg: $2,733RU $38,585RH $23,441PD $868AG $3,500RE $12,219OS $32,154IR $49,486PT $50,836AU H chondrites have the following concentrations in kg/ton (which is the same as mg/g) RU0.00111 RH0.000207 PD0.0011 AG0.841 RE0.8 OS0.00082 IR0.00074 PT0.0016 AU0.00023 And our 15-m radius C asteroid with density=1 g/cc weighs 14000 metric tons. So Pt in this asteroid is 49486 $/kg * 0.0016 Kg/ton * 14000 tons = $1,100,000 Did I mess something up? I'm tired, so maybe I did something wrong. If you use an iron meteorite, you can multiply by 5. Jeff On 4/6/2013 5:47 PM, Michael Mulgrew wrote: Not to worry, executives from De Beers are forming a corporation to take care of just that. Michael in so. Cal. On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:47 AM, Michael Farmer m...@meteoriteguy.com wrote: The problem is that supply and demand must equalize. I would think that the arrival of more platinum that has ever been mined would instantly depress the price on the open market. Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On Apr 6, 2013, at 12:56 AM, bill kies parkforest...@hotmail.com wrote: All in due time. It will be mind numbing to the nth degree when profits are made. The potential for fees and regulation are as limitless as the greed based hallucinations that currently strip us of our ability, our will, to produce on an entrepreneurial level no matter how basic. From: mikest...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:23:19 -0700 To: mars...@gmail.com CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum) Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known
[meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering it to Earth like so many storks bringing babies from outer space cost effective? It was estimated that a single 30m asteroid might yield $25-50 billion worth of Pt, more or less 40,000 to 80,000kg at 'today's prices'. The world's total Pt output was 192,000kg in 2010. From the 'Economist' article link (BTW - my favorite magazine, Sterling) we learn, ...the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare. Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap. The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardware that makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect on the price of platinum when a mountain of the stuff arrives from outer space. . leaving me calculating the 'present value' of all this precious metal in 'Bitcoins' :) Happy week-end. Kevin Kichinka Rio del Oro, Santa Ana, Costa Rica www.theartofcollectingmeteorites.com 'The Global Meteorite Price Report - 2013' mars...@gmail.com __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Sign Up Now for your Mineral Rights (Mining Asteroids for Platinum)
Just wait until you see the BLM permitting process to establish a mining claim on an asteroid... Michael is so. Cal. On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Kevin Kichinka mars...@gmail.com wrote: Team Meteorite: When Ron Baalke forwarded today a news article about mining asteroids for platinum, I at once thought of science-fiction movies I have seen from behind a box of artificially-buttered popcorn. You know, those flicks where slaves from Earth work 84 year-days far beneath the surface of some bare rock-moon in space partnered with creatures normally viewed among the protozoa. Of course there is no possible escape from this living death, but movies need happy endings so our heroes always make it home to their Honey. Mining asteroids seems a bit far-fetched to me. But ask a question or make a comment on the m-list and someone opens the door to knowledge for you. Just walk through. Thanks to Randy Korotev, I know that OC's may contain Pt at ore-grade concentrates of 1ppm. But really, how concentrated is that I wondered, ever the sceptic. Two seconds research informed me that Platinum is an extremely rare metal, occurring at a concentration of only 0.005 ppm in the Earth's crust. Looking deeper into the topic (research is like mining, just keep digging and you'll always find your bone) ... Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on the Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. And... From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined as the length of a platinum-iridium (90:10) alloy bar, known as the International Prototype Meter bar. The previous bar was made of platinum in 1799. The International Prototype Kilogram remains defined by a cylinder of the same platinum-iridium alloy made in 1879. Those two paragraphs were uncovered from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum Sterling Webb's ever astute comments and links gave me leads and info so that with a little follow-up I've also learned - - the total mass of all asteroids equals about 4% of our Moon's mass. (I had always thought the sum was equal to a 'broken' or 'aborted' planet the size of Mars or larger). - C-type asteroids are carbonaceous and the most common. Consisting of clay and silicate rocks they exist furthest from the Sun in the outer Belt and are the least altered by heat. They may consist of up to 22% water. - S-type 'silaceous' asteroids are primarily stony materials and nickle-iron and are found in the inner belt. - M-type asteroids are mostly nickle-iron and range in the middle region. One linked article allows that because C-type asteroids are expected to have water they will be targeted first, the hydrogen and oxygen split to create fuel. (H-m-m-m-m-m, but 'closer' asteroids is 'better' asteroids). Most importantly, is mining platinum on asteroids and delivering it to Earth like so many storks bringing babies from outer space cost effective? It was estimated that a single 30m asteroid might yield $25-50 billion worth of Pt, more or less 40,000 to 80,000kg at 'today's prices'. The world's total Pt output was 192,000kg in 2010. From the 'Economist' article link (BTW - my favorite magazine, Sterling) we learn, ...the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum, iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare. Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they will become cheap. The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardware that makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect on the price of platinum when a mountain of the stuff arrives from outer space. . leaving me calculating the 'present value' of all this precious metal in 'Bitcoins' :) Happy week-end. Kevin Kichinka Rio del Oro, Santa Ana, Costa Rica www.theartofcollectingmeteorites.com 'The Global Meteorite Price Report - 2013' mars...@gmail.com __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
