5 ms·
Well, here's three things you're neglecting: 1) Planetary Resources is talking about getting access to 10's or 100's of times more platinum than have ever been
by maaku 15y ago
Well, here's three things you're neglecting:
1) Planetary Resources is talking about getting access to 10's or 100's of times more platinum than have ever been mined in human history, or even could be extracted from the Earth's crust. "Domestic" production simply cannot scale in this way.
2) Mining platinum is not a very profitable business--it comes out of the Earth's curst in very low concentrations. Without a doubt extra-terrestrial sources will always be able to undercut "domestic" suppliers without driving prices so low.
3) No Earth-base operation would compete with a late-stage Planetary Resources, because at any point they could flood the market and drive competitors out of business. Earth-based mining firms will change their business to extract resources for which return from asteroids remains unprofitable.
- Retric 15y ago1) Platinum is not what they are basing their business on. It's just an example of mining asteroids not their only goal. Good old H20 is probably the safest bet to start with. 2) This is why people don't 'mine' platinum. They extract it from the leftovers when they mine copper / gold etc. The important question when evaluating the response to increased supply is the cost of just that refining step not including all the costs associated with getting to that point. 3) See 2. Unless they drive down the price of copper. However, flooding the market drives down prices so rather than saying they can provide X you need to look at how much they could sell 100 tons of platinum a year for. They can also supply 100 tons of water into LEO a year but you can't look at the current 1k to 20k/lb price of water in LEO and assume that's a constant when their supplying a 100 ton's of the stuff.