Ivanhoe’s Kipushi zinc mine in DRC officially reopens
The restart marked exactly a century since the mine first went into production.
CBC’s The National features a two-minute news clip focused on space mining and two companies venturing into the potential trillion-dollar industry. (Video embed below.)
Deep Space Industries plans to harvest raw materials for spacecraft building and fuel production.
Seattle-based Planetary Resources, mentioned in the clip, also presented at the 2013 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference. Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer, said their company sees an opportunity to make a lot of money — especially with water and the platinum group metals. The latter are more rare than rare earth elements and exist in asteroids in amounts many times greater than Earth’s most productive mines.
Referring to water as “the oil of space,” Lewicki said water sourced beyond the Earth’s gravity could well be the main source of fuel for space.
The National also reported on its Jan. 22 broadcast that Canada’s NORCAT, based in Ontario, is developing a Canadrill to harvest water from the moon, similar to the Canadarm used on the US Space Shuttles.
