Xref: utzoo sci.astro:13701 sci.electronics:20823 sci.physics:20154 sci.research:1726 sci.aeronautics:2263 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!agate!sprite.berkeley.edu!shirriff From: shirriff@sprite.berkeley.edu (Ken Shirriff) Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.electronics,sci.physics,sci.research,sci.aeronautics Subject: Re: Excavating (minig) gold in the space by NASA. Message-ID: <1991Jun11.223608.2087@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 11 Jun 91 22:36:08 GMT Article-I.D.: agate.1991Jun11.223608.2087 References: <1991Jun11.122417.1@acad2.alaska.edu> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator) Distribution: usa Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 23 In article <1991Jun11.122417.1@acad2.alaska.edu> asldh@acad2.alaska.edu writes: [Asteroid with 10000 tons of gold and 100000 tons of platinum] >is there anyone out there with easy access to the figures for world gold and platinum production levels today? 1987: world gold production: 52.5 million troy ounces, of which the US produced 10%. world platinum group production: 8.668 million troy ounces. (From US Statistical Abstracts) 52.5 million troy ounces = 1.6 million kilograms 10000 tons = 9 million kilograms So the asteroid contains 5.6 years world gold production, and 338 years platinum metals production (assuming I didn't blow the units conversions.) Of course the entire asteroid won't end up on the world market at once. (Someone said that the asteroid was small number ppm gold and thus wouldn't be worth mining. However, I would guess that the asteroid wouldn't be homogeneous, and thus the high concentration areas might be worth mining.) Ken Shirriff shirriff@sprite.Berkeley.EDU