Asteroid Mining and the Market for Platinum, a speculative analysis

Kieck, Charles

Asteroid Mining and the Market for Platinum, a speculative analysis

Master Thesis

2021

Abstract

The potential existence of a high-volume asteroid-derived platinum supply is examined from an economic perspective to assess the possible impact on long-term platinum supply. It is hypothesized that space-mined resources will increasingly become available over the next 30 years to 2050, driven by growing human activity in near-Earth space. Forecasted asteroid platinum supply under 3 scenarios is compared to forecasted terrestrial platinum supply. The thesis finds that, depending on the speed at which the size of an asteroid practical to mine up-scales, space-mined platinum has the potential to significantly impact on the terrestrial platinum market.

Keywords

Economics

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