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| Raw Titanium via Titanium Metal Supply |
With the demand for resources rising with each passing year,
mineral prospectors are pushed to consider unusual places in the future of
mining. As it stands now, mining is already a risky occupation. Miners process
and move huge quantities of material in hazardous and unpleasant conditions.
Yet with the dangers present now, consider how much more
extreme this profession would become if the mining ranged out to asteroids in
space, or the bottom of the ocean. While the ideas seem far-fetched, there are
a few pioneering companies that are making plans to explore extreme options as
future mining sites.
The drive for such extreme sorts of mining is accounted for
by the recent dramatic rise in the price of many metals. Supplies from
conventional land-based sources are clearly dwindling. Couple this with
increased demand and available supply is being outstripped. This is true for bulk metals like
nickel, copper and titanium along with precious metals like platinum and gold.
Even rare earth elements like lanthanum and neodymium, which are used in modern
technologies, are starting to become harder for metal supply companies to keep
in stock.
As prices for these metals continue to increase, potential
sources of the metals that were once dismissed as too far-fetched may now be
theoretically economically viable. Estimations report that a square kilometer
of sediment near Hawaii, at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean contains enough
rare earths that it would meet a fifth of the annual demand globally. And it is
estimated that a 500 meter-wide asteroid may yield nearly 1.5 times the
understood reserves of platinum group metals.
Mineral resources that are potentially available in asteroids and on the ocean floor are incredible and could be the site of the mining industry’s future resources. At present, however, technical obstacles stand in the way of mining these available resources. In order for more extreme resources to be taken advantage of technology will have to be developed to make mining in these exotic locations not only safe but cost effective as well.
