[maro]

The introduction of that much palladium would depress palladium prices, so that's not quite right. Something similar happened when the Spanish brought back massive quantities of silver from the New World. Ask yourself this: would you trade half your property for a bunch of palladium? Nah; no use for it. On the other hand, I'm all for space exploration.

[goody2shooz]

Hi maro!

Mining and exploiting that much PGM would indeed cause a financial collapse IF it were not handled appropriately. Spain, of course, is the classic example.

I hope that one day we will have orbiting smelting and processing facilities in conjunction with zero-G vacuum manufacturing and fabrication facilities that can take advantage of the unique properties some PGMs possess. Manning these facilities shouldn't be required; they would most likely be automated.