You HAVE to believe there are precious metals on the Moon, and other ‘rocky’ inner solar system planets.
If there’s Gold here, there’s DEFINITELY gold elsewhere, among with other precious metals. However, how cost effective is it to mine and bring back? That’s where it gets interesting.
“If there’s Gold here, there’s DEFINITELY gold elsewhere, among with other precious metals. However, how cost effective is it to mine and bring back?”
Also, when it comes to gold, keep in mind that the more of it you find, the less it is worth. Gold has been pretty stable since we discovered most of the exploitable gold on Earth by the end of the 19th century. Open up a bunch of mines on other planets, and it would lose stability again.
The easiest thing is to drill living quarters first, then just drill out. Hardly any oxygen leakage, no solar radiation, and no breaching.
Also, it’s doable on any moon or planet with a solid surface.
Actually, mining on the Moon is relatively easy because the only thing of value there is Lunar dust, which contains relatively large amounts of Helium-3. You get the He3 out of the dust by heating it. The He3 was produced by the bombardment of cosmic radiation, and it is likely of high value in (clean) fusion nuclear reactions.
There are likely few other minerals in recoverable quantity on the Moon, because it lacks water, which tends to concentrate minerals and metals.
Asteroids, on the other hand, can be very dense with valuable metals, such as in the platinum group. One Near Earth Object, called 433 Eros, is about the size of Manhattan, but is believe to contain as much platinum group metals as the entire crust of the Earth.
This means ruthenium ($58/oz), rhodium ($1,240/oz), palladium ($804/oz), osmium ($400/oz), iridium ($560/oz), and platinum ($1,238/oz).
Right now, even these values are not enough to make asteroid mining economical. However, many of these metals are almost played out of their known reserves on Earth, so their values may skyrocket.