Gecamines offers $1 million to block Chinese deal with cobalt miner Chemaf
Chemaf agreed to sell its assets to Chinese defence and industrial giant, China North Industries Corp, or Norinco in June.
In 2009 NASA launched the first lunar mining competition called The Lunabotics Mining Competition (now simply called the Robotic Mining Competition) that aims to generate “innovative ideas and solutions, which could be applied to actual lunar excavation for NASA.”
Google is also sponsoring a moon-related prize, the Lunar X-prize, a $40 million competition to encourage privately funded teams to launch “land a robot safely on the moon, move 500 meters on, above, or below the moon’s surface and send back HDTV Mooncasts for everyone to enjoy!”
Newt Gingrich, presidential aspirant in the 2012 Republican contest, wanted to see a permanent moon base established by the second term of his presidency that could be used for space tourism and mining ventures. Gingrich was widely mocked for his grand plan and former space executives criticized the policy, choosing to endorse Mitt Romney.
The moon is rich in rare earths, titanium and could support mining with recent evidence of the existence of water, the big prize when excavating the moon is helium-3.
Almost non-existent on earth, helium-3 is abundant and accessible on the moon and could be used in nuclear fusion, producing much more energy than fission reactions and with much less radioactive waste.
While the USA dabbles with the idea of lunar mining and both India and Russia have in the past floated ideas, China is the only power pushing ahead with an actual program.
Writing in The Diplomat Fabrizio Bozzato, a PhD Candidate at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at the Tamkang University in Taiwan, intriguingly argues China’s program to land on the moon within a decade could be a game-changer:
It does, however, exist on the moon. Lacking an atmosphere, the moon has been bombarded for billions of years by solar winds carrying helium-3. As a result, the dust of the lunar surface is saturated with the gas. It has been calculated that there are about 1,100,000 metric tons of helium-3 on the lunar surface down to a depth of a few meters, and that about 40 tons of helium-3 – enough to fill the cargo bays of two space shuttles –could power the U.S. for a year at the current rate of energy consumption. Given the estimated potential energy of a ton of helium-3 (the equivalent of about 50 million barrels of crude oil), helium-3 fuelled fusion could significantly decrease the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, and increase mankind’s productivity by orders of magnitude.
However, supplying the planet with fusion power for centuries requires that we first return to the moon. At present, only China has this in mind, with its Chang’e program, a lunar exploration program that will send astronauts to the moon by the early 2020s. If Beijing wins the second “race for the moon,” and establishes a sustained human outpost conducting helium-3 mining operations, it would establish the same kind of monopoly that in the past created the fortunes of ventures like the East India Company. The ramifications would be significant, to say the least.
First, “China is what international relations scholars call a ‘revisionist power,’ seeking opportunities to assert its enhanced relative position in international affairs,” according to Foreign Policy. Establishing an automated or manned helium-3 operation on the moon would be a spectacular assertion. Second, with the inevitable depletion of fossil fuels on Earth, China would be in a position to gradually build a helium-3 empire in which it would control the supply of the lunar gas. The rise of such an empire would most likely be met with resistance. The prospect of China’s energy supremacy would probably lead to pervasive geopolitical influence, cause geopolitical tension and anti-Chinese alliances to coalesce, and prompt other countries – particularly the U.S. – to hasten to the moon to break the dragon’s monopoly.
Continue reading at The Diplomat
13 Comments
Sherlocker
Return to the moon? Dear lord are there those that still buy that Apollo nonsense of “landing” on the moon, shooting a round of golf, crusing in a moon buggy and such silly notions before blasting back to the mother ship, docking at 4000 mph and then home in time for Archie Bunker…all with Fred Flintstone 60’s “technology” and a total round trip of 700, 000 kilometers practically, where today we still can’t even get beyond 450 kms orbit and that only with Mother Russia’s help.
Dear dear me. Seriously get a brain and snap out of that ridiculous “duck and cover” Mercan matrix. It’s beyond embarrassing, old chap
“A funny thing happened on the way to the moon”
Mike Failla
Well, why not? (note: 5;12am start of argument)
modindustpro
Moving away from conspiracy theories, I wonder if anyone from the space program has considered the implications of adding extra terrestrial material to the earth’s system? I don’t think Helium-3 in copious amounts would actually cause an issue but mining something like iron or other heavy metals over the course of centuries could add a significant mass to our planet.
Jerry
I just finished a book on this very topic called Moon Rising. I think 2020 is wildly aggressive for Helium 3 mining, but no one ever accused the Chinese of not having a good propaganda machine. If you’re interested, check it out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KZO4HVY
Mark Harder
Between the lines, the article reads as though China was planning to land astronauts on the moon in the 2020’s. Seems to me setting up large-scale mining and processing operations would take a lot longer than that. You’d have to get large machines or their prefab components up there first. To do that, I imagine it would be best to ferry them to an orbiting platform for trans-shipment. So you’d have to build this techno challenge first. You’d have to build domiciles for workers on the moon. Look at the hurdles involved in building a large mining complex on Baffin Island, for comparison.
And I think fusion power is a long way off, not even on the horizon yet. Do we really want to invest, what, hundreds of billions with such a payoff risk?
BTW, how is the helium bound up in the lunar substrate? Helium and its physical isotope He-3 is chemically inert. You won’t find it in any mineral. It’s obtained from natural gas wells, where we get all our helium now.
galum
what the f… are we gonna do with helium 3? put it in birthday balloons?
Matt
2020’s? Right, if you find a deposit 50km off the Stewart Cassiar highway in 2015 it would take an average of about 20 years to take it to production. So if they find something on the moon, I expect it will be somewhere around 2080 when they finally get a John Deere up there to dig it out. But having said that it will probably happen.
seanolearyoz
The East India Company comparison is understandable but of course there is a fundamental difference. The East India Company worked by taking from other people, China’s plans by contrast are based on science and uplifting humanity as a whole.
seanolearyoz
What did Obama say about lunar exploration? He said, ‘We’ve been there before!’ Unless Obama is removed from office by impeachment or the threat of impeachment, the USA is not going anywhere but instead it will continue to go backwards rapidly.
Michael D. Campbell
Mark, you might want to read through Chapter 9 of a book we contributed regarding the subject –
http://www.i2massociates.com/downloads/Memoir101-CHAPTER09Rev.pdf
The topic is developing rapidly –
http://web.i2massociates.com/categories/off-world-exploration-and-mining.asp?QS=True&resources=10&OrderDirection=desc&OrderField=codefixerlp_tblLink_flddateadded
MDC
niquetamere
bite
Stephen Stan Clemente
Why send humans when robotics can do all the mining without biological life support systems?
Marcos Passarello
AS-8000-2003 – Good
Governance Principles –
After get training and coordinating
groups of professionals in IRAM (ISO) since 2004, in the Subcommittees in Risk
Management, Fraud Management, Information Security and Software Quality was
preparation for that in 2011, Banco Patagonia achieved ISO 27001 certification:
2005, as the first Argentine Bank distinguished and then the year 2014
recertify the ISO 27001: 2005 as well as the first Argentine bank to do so, for
me it was a double feat as directly responsible for this goal. Continued
working on the following standards, ISO / IEC27001: 2013 – “Specifications
for Systems Management Information Security (ISMS)”, Internal Audit: ISO
19011: 2011 “Guidelines for auditing management systems” , Technological
Risk Management: ISO 31000:2009 “Risk Management Principles and
Guidelines.”, BCP- ISO 22301: 2012 “Management systems business continuity”
and Incident Management.
Development: The
Importance of information technology
Information is an asset that, like other
important business assets, is essential to an organization’s business and
consequently needs to be suitably protected. This is especially important in
the increasingly interconnected business environment. As a result of this
increasing interconnectivity, information is now exposed to a growing number
and a wider variety of threats and vulnerabilities (see also OECD Guidelines
for the Security of Information Systems and Networks).
Information can exist in many forms. It
can be printed or written on paper, stored electronically, transmitted by post
or by using electronic means, shown on films, or spoken in conversation. Whatever
form the information takes, or means by which it is shared or stored, it should
always be appropriately protected. Information security is the protection of
information from a wide range of threats in order to ensure business continuity, minimize business risk, and maximize
return on investments and business opportunities.
Information security is achieved by implementing
a suitable set of controls, including policies, processes, procedures,
organizational structures and software and hardware functions. These controls need
to be established, implemented, monitored, reviewed and improved, where
necessary, to ensure
that the specific security and business
objectives of the organization are met. This should be done in conjunction with
other business management processes.
Climate change and
global warming
The D-He3 fueled
nuclear fusion reaction has long been recognized as long been attractive for
generating clean fusion energy. Although aware of its virtues, fusion
researchers had despaired of ever using it because they did not know where to
obtain He3. Recently University of Wisconsin scientists upon reviewing data on
constituents of lunar samples confirmed their suspicion on the presence of He3
in the lunar regolith. He3 originated in the sun and is transported by the
solar wind where it has been implanted in the lunar surface over several
billion years. It is estimated that about a million tonnes of He3 is stored in
lunar regolith. A kg of He3 can generate 10 MW-years of electric on earth,
worth 5-10 M$ by present day costs. The benefits for a permanent lunar base
from by-products of a He3 mining operation are very impressive. Another paper
describes a mobile He3 miner and its implication toward the resupply of a lunar
base.