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FTA: "A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human histo
by nlh 15y ago
FTA:
"A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history, company officials said."
Quick Wikipedia/Google math:
1 cubic foot of Platinum = 1330 pounds [1]
Total platinum mined ever = ~25 cubic feet [1] * 1330 lbs = 33250 lbs = 532,000 oz
Current price of platinum = $1,560/oz [2]
Total value of platinum in an asteroid = $829M
And that's just the one metal, which is not the only thing they're mining. Throw the water in there for the space station(s) and it's not impossible to assume that one asteroid can gross well over $1bn -- we're not talking $trillions yet, but I bet they've modeled this out to make it a profitable venture...
[1] - http://www.gold-eagle.com/analysis/platinum.html http://www.gold-eagle.com/analysis/platinum.html
[2] - http://www.kitco.com/market/ http://www.kitco.com/market/
(of course this doesn't account for the fact that if you suddenly double the worldwide supply of platinum overnight, the price likely won't stay at $1560/oz....but still...)
- paulsutter 15y agoAnd that's for a tiny, tiny asteroid.
- njharman 15y agoWow! I can't believe we've only ever mined 25 cubic feet of plat. Reading your source I'm not sure it's right, "The annual supply of platinum is only about 130 tons" "one cubic foot weighs a little more than 1,330 pounds" 23*1330lb = 13,875kg ever 130tons = 117,934kg per year "basement of less than 25 cubic feet" Maybe them meant basement of 25 square feet or 250cuft which is still tiny basement.
- intractable 15y agoIt's definitely wrong. According to [1], 614,631 kg were mined in South Africa (which accounts for about 80% of world production) between 2002 and 2009. Density of platinum = 21.45g/cm^3 = 21.45 * 10^6 g/m^3 = 21.45 * 10^3 kg/m^3 => total volume mined 2002 - 2009 = 614631 / 21450 = 28.65 m^3 approx. So that's about 28.65 * 35.29 = 1011 cubic feet, JUST in South Africa and JUST between those years. Other estimates visualise the total ever mined as a cube of 20 feet per SIDE ([2]), which sounds a bit more like it, given the numbers above - but still feels a little bit low. [1] http://www.indexmundi.com/minerals/?country=za&product=platinum&graph=production http://www.indexmundi.com/minerals/?country=za&product=p... [2] http://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm http://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm
- adavies42 15y agopeople screw up "x cubed" and "cubic x" so often....
- guynamedloren 15y agoWell apparently I was very wrong! Thanks for clearing this up. Amazing. So, for $1BN you could have: Instagram, SpaceX, or small asteroid. Ha!
- Sivart13 15y agoA billion -- whoa, we're talking Instagram money here.
- Tichy 15y agolulz - I think I'll use "one instagram" instead of "one billion" from now on...
- evoxed 15y agoI'm not saying I don't believe any of this (I certainly do), but this whole business has HUGE bubble or even scam potential. Think those damn "moon-plots" but on a larger, perhaps government scale. Imagine some of the poor smaller governments trying to invest in the future only to find out that whoops, our data was wrong and you can only make $500k on that giant rock...
- kamaal 15y agoIts more than that. Merely the technologies that will get developed to build such a venture can patented and billions can be made out of them. Also they are talking of water, that means resources for the next permanent space stations. Building oxygen gardens in space and space colonies. Stuff and resources that require maintaining large space colonies. Considering projects of such big ambitions, the investments and associated risks we are taking is chicken feed.