Zimbabwe to end tax relief for miners to spur mineral processing
President Emmerson Mnangagwa said last month the government would introduce incentives to encourage mining companies to process their output locally.
An asteroid said to contain up to $5.4 trillion worth of platinum reserves will be making a close approach to planet Earth this evening, July 19th.
At half a kilometre across, asteroid 2011 UW-158 is too small to be spotted by the human eye, even though it will come 30 times closer to Earth – about 1.5 million miles away – than Mars, the nearest planet. Astronomers will be searching for the valuable space rock through telescopes tonight.
“What makes this unusual is the large amount of platinum believed to be lurking in the body of this space visitor. Can it be mined someday, perhaps not too far in the future?” said Bob Berman of Sloosh Community Observatory, which links telescopes to the Internet thus making viewing accessible to anyone with a Web browser.
Scientists believe the asteroid could contain up to 90 million tonnes of platinum and other precious metals.
The appearance of the asteroid comes just three days after asteroid mining company Planetary Resources successfully deployed Thursday its first spacecraft from the International Space Station’s (ISS) Kibo airlock, beginning a 90-day mission aimed to test extraterrestrial prospecting technology.
The Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R), launched to the ISS onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 last April, will spend its three-month orbiting mission sending back data to a group of scientists based at the firm’s headquarters in Redmond, WA.
According to Sloosh, Planetary Resources has categorized 2011 UW-158 as an “X-type” asteroid that is suitable for mining. The company is interested in exploiting the asteroid for platinum and possibly water.
Many consider asteroid mining a first and key step to the eventual colonization of outer space.
Nearly 9,000 asteroids larger than 36 meters (150 feet) in diameter orbit near Earth. Geologists believe they are packed with iron ore, nickel and precious metals at much higher concentrations than those found on Earth, making up a market valued in the trillions of dollars.
Asteroids are also a prime source for water in space, essential for interplanetary outpost.
In 2014 the European Space Agency proved it is possible to land a spacecraft on a comet, when the Rosetta drone touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov, after having travelled 6 billion kilometres in a decade.
2011 UW-158 is expected to make a return orbit to Earth in three years time, when it will be even closer to the planet.
Image from Youtube
12 Comments
Warren Bolton
….and when we are finished mining just steer it into the sun. The ultimate mining waste disposal solution
C Gilroy
Why do the believe they contain concentrations of metals? Sounds like explorationists gone wild, to me.
Thinh Bui
asteroids are full of minerals underground, no doubt, metals and previous metals, our planet’s system is pull at great speed V toward Vega pathway, for sure they are attracted by some kind of magnet on the asteroid, as there is on earth. What is at the end of the tunnel, no one know, the Big Bang theory. No surprise, but using asteroid as a disposable space vehicle is a smart minded to explore !…What a discovery foxes, let’s go for it !…Tell me more, tell me more !…
Matt
Howe Street and Bay Street had the first collective chubb in a decade. Think about it though. hard to raise money for known deposits of Au on earth. Even an asteroid of pure gold would likely cost more to get to, let alone to colonize and mine. I cannot begin to imagine camp costs and would you be able to have a TV in every private room? lol
Ralph A Gonzalez
Which company did the assaying. If this claim was presented by a stock exchange listed company, it would immediately be centured and probably delisted. Alternately, with all the sulphur in hell there must be giga-trillions of tonnes of gold there – maybe that’s why so many people are heading there.
LAMB
If it took the ROSETA Drone 10 years to land on an asteroid, how long would it take to land on this one? And how did they come up with an assay of 90 million tons of Platinum? Lots of questionable statements have been made here.
Looks like Asteroid Mining will be the next “WILD WEST” IF it can ever be done.
Mark Harder
“Scientists BELIEVE the asteroid COULD contain UP TO 90 million tonnes of platinum and other precious metals.”
I’m not opening my wallet yet. 90 ounces of platinum would qualify, if only those scientists had a little more to go on than some kind of faith alone…
C Gilroy
And if you do the math, an asteroid that size would have a mass of 200 million tonnes. The scientists therefore BELIEVE is it almost 50% metals. Global reserves are 48,000 tonnes. If we could only chip a bit off this asteroid…………
Ralph A Gonzalez
The stupid article should also include a disclaimer like most other promotions notes are required to contain.
Rod B
One-half ounce of anything is within the term “up to 90” of anything…forget the millions.
rayban
Reserves typically means proven and probable … They have not been to it yet let alone drilled ? As mentioned by others this ain’t legal . You can send any size drone and mine any amount so get ready , some day they gonna do it . Some day , after Electric cars die and Platinum is above $1000 an ounce again .
Jake Small
Another lovely production by the “powers that be” as they buybuybuy as much of gold/silver/palladium/platinum as possible until the articles start reading “EPA and every environmental/scientific publication reveals that mining is destroying our Earth and causing massive wildlife damage, habitat destruction (for both animals AND humans), and most likely contaminating all water supply in the regions within which there is mining activity. The Senate and House are reviewing a bill that would limit all mining operations to areas farther than 25 miles from any body of water, endangered species (of any animal, fish, insect, bird, etc) and total CO2 omissions from the equipment cannot exceed X units of measurement. They predict this will slash production of gold, silver, palladium, platinum, copper, iron ore, and nickel/zinc/etc. by over 60% annually.”
“Gold prices soar to $10,000/toz in light of new environmental protection policies put in place to ensure we don’t cause all life on Earth to go extinct…”
Oh, gotta love the conspiracies. Gold hits $5,000/oz by 2025 (everything run by electricity and no automobile or boat runs on gas, gold wiring in every handheld electronic device.) If they come to realize gold dust can patch up holes in our ozone layer – it goes to $20,000/oz by 2050. Silver $50/oz (solar runs everything and electric as well, all wired by newly enhanced silver materials). Palladium becomes the essential ingredient in the new platinum/palladium/etc concoction for the solar panels’ receptors and batteries, goes to $5,000/oz – esp when they find out it’s 1/5th as abundant as they thought.