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Lots of miners during the various gold rushes went bust.
Some few hit it big.
It's about a free market and keeping government out of the way. I say let the market work.
Funny how there's always one guy telling the guys that are actually doing something that it will never work.... crab bucket mentality.
/johnny
long term space mining is for using the minerals IN SPACE to build habitats and ships and manufacturing facilities IN SPACE.... creating an actual economy IN SPACE
The mining financiers on Earth may not like PGM at $10/oz, but if industry can use it effectively and the supply is unlimited from space, then Earth mines, digging in the dirt, will not be economically feasible and will go the way of mica mines for stove windows. The mining cartels and mining financiers will need to find another means to support themselves, like financing teleoperated semiautonomous vacuum mining equipment.
Meanwhile people will find new uses for PGMs that if mentioned today, would get laughed at because of the cost. Platinum-Rhenium guitar strings? Are you nuts? Motorcycle cylinder liners? Each one would cost a hunnert grand!
It is inevitable that governments will move quickly to quash and control private extraterrestrial space industries involving asteroids. They fear the potential use of asteroids to threaten Earth with asteroidal bombardment, which is far more destructivee than all of the Earth’s nuclear armaments that ever existed. The moment private industry is in a position to exploit the resources of an asteroid, the governments on the Earth will act to stop them.
Basic economics fail. Diamonds are actually pretty common, and as a percentage of all diamonds, gem quality diamonds are far more common than the price they demand in retail, or even wholesale.
So why are diamonds so expensive? Two reasons. Monopoly and market control. DeBeers Corporation pretty well controls both production and distribution, and are believed to have many tons of gem quality cut diamonds in reserve, sitting idle, to keep the price up. This also means that if anyone ever tried to compete with them, they could undercut the price so much that their competitor would be ruined.
In any event, on to asteroid mining. Just a single asteroid, known as 433 Eros, which is a mere 34km x 11km x 11km, is believed to have more platinum group ore in it than in the entire crust of the Earth.
As far as Earth goes, platinum ore is so scant, that roadside dust, containing molecules of platinum coughed out by car catalytic converters, has about the same amount of platinum, in parts per billion. The stuff is rare.
While the article only mentioned three, there are six platinum group metals: ruthenium ($110/oz), rhodium ($1200/oz), palladium ($660/oz), osmium ($380/oz), iridium ($1050/oz), and platinum ($1610/oz). It also contains gold ($1750/oz), rhenium ($345/oz),
If 433 Eros is typical of rocky asteroids, it is about 3% metal, and even old estimates of the value of its metal exceed 20 trillion dollars.
bfl
