[goody2shooz]

One average sized near-earth platinum-group metal asteroid contains metal worth our globe's net annual income.

Yep! The whole world's income!

Everytime some politician says there is no reason to go into space, I want to scream in response, "You're a frigging idiot!!"

[Mr.Clark]

Right on! Those people are so short sighted.

[LenS]

One average sized near-earth platinum-group metal asteroid contains metal worth our globe's net annual income.

But once they accessed that much metal, the value of metals around the world would drop precipitately and the value of the asteroid would be a lot less. Simple supply and demand.

That being said, it would be interesting to what would become economically possible with a vast supply of cheap ore.

[IWONDR]

"One average sized near-earth platinum-group metal asteroid contains metal worth our globe's net annual income."

Do we know of any asteroids containing platinum metals?