Keep mining!
March 6, 2015 6:31 AM Subscribe
Somehow, I suspect they will discover that the extraction of platinum and its recycling will miraculously keep up with demand.
posted by markkraft at 6:53 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by markkraft at 6:53 AM on March 6, 2015
"But with resources running short on Earth, mining the sky could be humanity's only hope"... for infinite bullets!
Look, I get it, giant rocks in space are filled with valuable minerals. But the bullets part just seems so out of place. "Here's a task that will require huge amounts of money, not to mention long term planning, to even contemplate. And then we can shoot at stuff even more!!"
posted by Phredward at 6:58 AM on March 6, 2015
Look, I get it, giant rocks in space are filled with valuable minerals. But the bullets part just seems so out of place. "Here's a task that will require huge amounts of money, not to mention long term planning, to even contemplate. And then we can shoot at stuff even more!!"
posted by Phredward at 6:58 AM on March 6, 2015
We are approaching peak platinum? Also, the ocean floor thing sounds kind of familiar.
On a more serious note I have often wondered about what natural resources we are likely to completely deplete in the foreseeable future. It seems like a tough question to answer; as per Jahaza's comment, I wonder if future generations will mine our landfills for the bits of useful metals that end up there.
posted by TedW at 6:58 AM on March 6, 2015
On a more serious note I have often wondered about what natural resources we are likely to completely deplete in the foreseeable future. It seems like a tough question to answer; as per Jahaza's comment, I wonder if future generations will mine our landfills for the bits of useful metals that end up there.
posted by TedW at 6:58 AM on March 6, 2015
One of the major players in Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars is a landfill mining pioneer.
posted by localroger at 7:04 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by localroger at 7:04 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
This idea has been around for a while. Seems pretty smart and worth the investment from what i can tell. Now if only we could blast trash from Earth toward the sun for some cosmic incineration disposal.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:09 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:09 AM on March 6, 2015
All messy industrial processes should be in an area we don't need for people, wildlife and farming. Off planet is ideal. When a trip to a space station requires just your body and minimal clothing the actual cost will be in the range of a few trips to Australia perhaps less. Machine shops in space. Build out space in space.
posted by sammyo at 7:12 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by sammyo at 7:12 AM on March 6, 2015
Metals are one thing, but I think plastic mining might be even bigger. Imagine the fortune that could be made just reclaiming the plastic from all the free AOL CDs people threw out with the Sunday newspaper ads in the 90s and early 00s.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:16 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:16 AM on March 6, 2015
While we're at it, we might want to build a defense against rogue asteroids that might threaten Earth, In fact that should be probably be a priority.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:21 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:21 AM on March 6, 2015
You basically need to believe that advance in ore concentration are at an end to believe we've hit peak anything. There is no evidence to believe that. The relationship between concentration and extractable reserves is nonlinear.
posted by JPD at 7:25 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by JPD at 7:25 AM on March 6, 2015
I suspect they will discover that the extraction of platinum and its recycling will miraculously keep up with demand.Tautologically it will, because demand is a function not a scalar, and the quantity demanded goes to zero as the price goes to infinity.
However, the part of the curve with low prices and high quantities is usually a much nicer place to live than the part with high prices and low quantities.
posted by roystgnr at 7:32 AM on March 6, 2015
The future of heavy industry is off-planet and automated. You don't really need to worry about pollution if you can have your robot fly out to a rock, suck it dry of resources and then build all your stuff (or at least do the smelting, refining and so on). There is plenty of sunlight for power and you can use the leftovers as reaction mass.
It's also a major stepping stone to interplanetary or interstellar manned programmes. (There's a lot of water locked up in asteroids)
Planetary Resources are currently hiring. It's very tempting to apply.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 8:08 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Planetary Resources are currently hiring. It's very tempting to apply.
Very cool! Unfortunately they don't seem to need any of the skills I actually have.
posted by Jahaza at 8:24 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Very cool! Unfortunately they don't seem to need any of the skills I actually have.
posted by Jahaza at 8:24 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Will we have to legislate a safe planetary mass to maintain our orbit, in some general sense?
posted by Oyéah at 8:27 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by Oyéah at 8:27 AM on March 6, 2015
There is almost zero platinum in printed circuit boards. I'm not sure why they use that as a primary use of platinum but for me it throws doubt on the veracity of the rest of their claims.
posted by rocket88 at 8:59 AM on March 6, 2015
posted by rocket88 at 8:59 AM on March 6, 2015
Like all peak <<whatever>> arguments, keep in mind that these are about proven reserves, stuff we know about.
There isn't great knowledge of the true abundance on the Pt group metals (and it isn't just platinum, it's the iridium, palladium, rhenium, ruthenium group) . From a recent publication: "Despite its significance, the average [platinum group element] composition of the [upper continental crust] is poorly constrained with published values varying by up to an order of magnitude." My guess is that there is still a fair bit out there, but it may take a bit more looking to find.
That's not to say extra-terran sources might not be useful in the future, but I take dire graphs Peak PGE!!! like the one linked with a bit of caution.
posted by bonehead at 9:35 AM on March 6, 2015
There isn't great knowledge of the true abundance on the Pt group metals (and it isn't just platinum, it's the iridium, palladium, rhenium, ruthenium group) . From a recent publication: "Despite its significance, the average [platinum group element] composition of the [upper continental crust] is poorly constrained with published values varying by up to an order of magnitude." My guess is that there is still a fair bit out there, but it may take a bit more looking to find.
That's not to say extra-terran sources might not be useful in the future, but I take dire graphs Peak PGE!!! like the one linked with a bit of caution.
posted by bonehead at 9:35 AM on March 6, 2015
Given the radical changes we will need to make to our societies and economies just to survive, this all seems kinda moot. We have no idea what a survivable future will look like, the only describable futures involve us all being dead.
posted by howfar at 12:41 PM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by howfar at 12:41 PM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
I want to stretch a giant net still across half the radius of the pacific garbage gyrus and get rich recycling it!
posted by Fupped Duck at 12:51 PM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Fupped Duck at 12:51 PM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Or just go out there with a conveyor-type junk picker on a boat, and you've got all the plastic you'll ever need. It's got to be worth something as fuel, if nothing else.
posted by sneebler at 7:32 PM on March 6, 2015
posted by sneebler at 7:32 PM on March 6, 2015
Now if only we could blast trash from Earth toward the sun for some cosmic incineration disposal.
NOOOO! Those orbiting trash piles will become the new mines when we run out of asteroids. Just put them in a high orbit, out of the way.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 10:19 PM on March 6, 2015
NOOOO! Those orbiting trash piles will become the new mines when we run out of asteroids. Just put them in a high orbit, out of the way.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 10:19 PM on March 6, 2015
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And what about landfill mining/recycling?
Wow... so glad that's not 9/11 Metallurgist.
posted by Jahaza at 6:37 AM on March 6, 2015 [3 favorites]