So PM fans what do you think would happen to the PM markets if the following happened...............

SanctionII

...................... and was verified as true.

Years age I read some SCI-FI novels by Arthur C. Clarke. In summary, it was dicovered that the planet Jupiter [the largest planet in the solar system which is made primarily of various gases] had a core that was made of pure diamond [apparently this is something that plantetary scientists have investigated and predicted since diamond is compressed carbon and since carbon is fairly common in the universe]. In the book Jupiter exploded becoming a mini-star and during the explosion the diamond core shatterd and Mt. Everst sized chunks of diamond were flung out across the solar system.

If a similar situation was discovered, with the core of Jupiter [or the planets Saturn, Uranus or Neptune] being found to be solid gold, silver or other precious metals, what would that discovery do to the PM markets here on earth?

You thoughts and speculations.

CaptMorgan

Interesting question, and Arthur C Clarke was a man before his time. I remember a show he did years ago about the crystal skulls. Amazing stuff.

I think if we humans found out our PM's were not so precious, prices would drop and we'd find something new to worship.

I think when everything is said and done, and the SdoesHTF, I think we will be warring with ourselves and maybe 'others' for something more common, for now, which is water. Clean fresh water.

pf70collector

Unless the diamond or gold is orbiting the earth. I guess we could build robotic ships to go and grab the stuff but it would probably take years or decades to retrieve any of it with today's technology depending how far out it is in the solar system.

secondrepublic

I don't think it would have any effect on precious metals prices unless the cost of space travel fell dramatically. The cost of launching into space is between $5,000 and $10,000 per pound of payload -- and that's after you've already paid to billions to design and build a spaceship. I can only guess how much it would cost to actually send a ship to another planet, mine the material, and bring it back to Earth. It would be astronomically expensive - no pun intended.

derryb

very little if no effect. It wouldn't be worth spending the cost to get it unless gold was worth many times what it is now. And if gold becomes worth many times what it is now the cost to go get it is also going to be many more times what it is now. So, it will probably never be worth the cost to go get it unless of course the survival of mankind depended upon it!

57loaded

diamond melts at even the center of earth's temp.

but let's speculate... uranus....10 to the 100 times the amount of gold as here on earth

first you gotta get there (no small feat) get it out, and get the stuff back....

but before all that.... ponder the political issues/competition/sabotage, etc.

ksammut

The smaller pieces would melt as they came through our atmosphere. If any large meteor type chunks made it through, not many would be thinking about PMs as we would probably be worried about a mass extinction.

Baley

There is a very high probablity that there are asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter that are far richer ore than any found on earth, and there might even be veins of relatively pure precious metals that would dwarf any lodes found on Earth.

As others have pointed out, they are not currently cost effective to discover and mine.

This may change within a few hundred years, possibly somewhat sooner, but very unlikely within the lifetime of even our youngest poster here, IMO.

The context of what else would be going on with Earth's population, with respect to population, the fabric of society, the "economy", etc, would determine the effect of additional supply of certain metals; however, the general laws of supply and demand predict that if the supply increases, and the demand remains constant, the price will decrease. All other relationships among supply, demand, and price should also behave predictably, provided the framework that allows markets to operate is maintained.

JamesMurray

I don't know much on the subject but i did watch a show about these meteorite hunters , something that would seem an impossible task but they do it. The reason being most ( I don't know about all ) of these meteorites contain precious gemstones. It showed one town where a small meteorite shower had occured and people were picking them up off their lawns and the streets etc.A guy had set up shop in town buying them and it seemed a lot of people were making money.

cladking

There probably won't be a lot of metal in or on any of the outer planets.

Venus, however, is composed of significant percentages of heavy metals and has an
active core so will probably have a lot accessible near the surface. Mercury as well is
"heavy" but it will prove far more difficult to mine even though it's rotation is tidally
locked with the sun.

There may be some metal in the asteroid belt and this will prove the easiest to mine
at least in the early days.

jmski52

There is another science fiction scenario in which the Federal Reserve discovers a huge cache of US Dollars - much, much larger than any previous discoveries - and when they are mined and sent out into circulation, the prices of US Dollars drops precipitously.

SanctionII

In the series of books by Arthur C. Clarke on the story [2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001] the planet Jupiter exploded at the end of 2010 and the topic of the diamond core of Jupiter was discussed in that book [with a reference to the Beatles song Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds; and with reference to an obscure scientific paper written on the topic that actually predicted that Jupiter's core was a diamond]. In 3001 humans were mining resources in the outer reaches of the solar system [including comets with ice in them which were snag with cables and through booster rockets placed into trajectories that resulted in them being crashed into Venus to release their water in order to reduce the temperature on Venus and change its atmosphere so that humans could colonize it [terraforming].

Clarke was a man ahead of his time and some of his sci fi speculations have turned out to be reality.

DoubleEagle59

<< <i>There is another science fiction scenario in which the Federal Reserve discovers a huge cache of US Dollars - much, much larger than any previous discoveries - and when they are mined and sent out into circulation, the prices of US Dollars drops precipitously. >>



You missed the ending of this scenario.....the CIA, acting upon direct orders from the US Fed, spikes the world's drinking water and brainwashes everyone into thinking these US dollars are valuable. Hence the farce of global commerce trading in US dollars continues into eternity.