Asteroids

In a message dated 8/2/04 3:00:46 PM, lucioc@... writes:

(...)
> Uh, there's not that much gold which could be easily mined out (unless
> there's underwater mining which we hasn't tried. But the real industrial
metal in
> heavy demand and very limited supply is silver. Mining of space silver, if
> such can be found would have a huge impact on whole industrialism.
(...)

There is also the Platinum Group stuff, with a growing industrial
demand for it and more abundant (or less rare :-) in asteroids than on
Earth. There are some studies saying that platinum, iridium, indium
and other precious (and horribly expensive) stuff could be profitably
mined from asteroids *nowadays*.

As for gold, the neighborhood were I am right now is buit over an iron
mountain with a gold mine (one of the operations of Anglogold here in
Brazil) that was closed last year after decades producing a few tonnes
of gold per year; and there are other mines in neighboring cities that
*do* produce tonnes of gold per year. So, my original statement that
gold can be mined by the tonnes here on Earth stands correct, and we
don't even need underwater minining! :-) >>

One reason for silver is that I heard that they have an excellent
superconducting matter and plus, they can transmit currents almostly frictionlessly which
mean that one silver wire can do the work of many copper wires in electric
transmission (which can make for cheaper linework to an home. If we use silver
in Island colonies, they could transmit far higher voltage on less lines from
solar panels. I'm not an metal expert, but I like this thought.

Carl E. Mullin
visionary artist and entrepreneur
homo asteralis
ravenart@...
www.ravenartstudio.com

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