233R_Platinum group metals extraction from asteroids vs Earth: An overview of the industrial ecosystems, technologies and risks (research summary)

What is The Future for Cities?

Are you interested in a solution for resource scarcity from space?

Our summary today works with the article titled Platinum group metals extraction from asteroids vs Earth: An overview of the industrial ecosystems, technologies and risks from 2024 by Francisco Ríos Muñoz, Camilo Peña Ramírez, José Meza, and Tenzin Crouch, published in Mineral Economics journal.

This is a great preparation to our next interview with Tenzin Crouch in episode 234 talking about space robotics.

Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see space solutions for resource scarcity. This article presents the major players and techniques in resource mining on Earth and potentially on asteroids.

As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

1. As Earth's mineral resources, particularly platinum group metals, become increasingly scarce and difficult to extract, asteroid mining emerges as a potential solution to address the growing demand and support future space missions.
2. While space mining offers abundant resources, it faces significant technological, financial, and regulatory challenges, making it a high-risk venture compared to the more established and economically viable terrestrial mining industry.
3. Traditional mining companies have been slow to invest in space mining due to their conservative approach to R&D and the high risks involved, but future technological advancements and environmental pressures may prompt them to reconsider their stance and explore this new frontier.

You can find the article through this link.

Abstract:

As consumption of the Earth’s finite resources continues to increase, significant stress is placed on the global economy, including the depletion of critical minerals and environmental pollution. One of the proposals to address this future scarcity is to exploit resources from near-Earth objects (NEOs), such as asteroids. The right NEOs could provide enormous quantities of resources, including platinum group metals (PMGs), for companies involved in this industry. However, the current technologies and equipment used to extract metals from the Earth are not suitable due to the difference in gravity on asteroids and new technologies must be developed to enable successful mineral extraction on NEOs. Several companies and startups have been creating prospecting technologies during the past years to make asteroid mining a reality. This paper provides a bibliographic overview of the major players operating in the global asteroid and Earth mining market. It compares terrestrial mining technologies and asteroid mining R&D projects, and discusses the Earth mining industry’s conservative vision for investing in R&D. Space mining is an embryonic industry. There is significant potential to extract critical minerals from NEOs, however the economic feasibility remains uncertain due to the low level of maturity in the required technologies. Despite significant advances in the past 20 years, it is clear that space mining remains a very high risk business activity.

Connecting episodes you might be interested in:

• No.180 - Interview with Ben Vass about space exploration;
• No.214 - Interview with Anders Sandberg about space cities;
• No.250 - Space Cities Panel discussion;

You can find the transcript through ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WTF4Cities⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wtf4cities.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ website where the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shownotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠are also available.

I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.

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