The Impact of Asteroid Mining

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

Sam Moorhouse blogs that the concept of asteroid mining is very much on-trend. Through sustained advances in technology provides access to the riches hosted by asteroids, such efforts have now moved from far-fetched lunacy to plausible concepts. This short editorial considers asteroid mining within the realms of traditional mining feasibility assessments. Mining feasibility is a process which itself has undergone repeated refinement over the last few decades culminating in a widely accepted and formalized process that now, by-and-large, aligns all mineral deposit evaluations (although not without its limitations .. see his previous post here). Although the technical and financial parameters are radically different than what we are used to seeing in traditional mining feasibility studies, the principles of appraising a mineral deposit would remain the same no matter where we are.

Because the numbers behind these assessments are orders of magnitude different from anything we have been used to seeing (although large projects approach it), it is difficult to really benchmark anything properly. But that also makes it very difficult not to get swept along in the idea. Who has had to design a mine where density and grade are literally isotropic no matter how deep you go? Who has designed a processing plant in zero gravity? Who has seen a financial model with costs and revenue measured in quadrillions? Since the concept of asteroid mining is very much embryonic this also means we have the freedom to consider traditional design matters with more autonomy. We can contemplate practical mine engineering but from a much more academic perspective. We can theorize as NASA did (see 1977 artist impression). As a Resource Geologist who started out with an Earth Science degree, it is an indulgence too difficult to resist. Putting asteroid mining into the traditional feasibility concept highlights just how different mining in space will be.