Mining The Moon For Titanium Is Still A Possibility
Long dismissed for its lofty price point, titanium is capturing the attention of a number of industries today, thanks to the dawn of Metalysis, a new process that converts the mineral into metal for a fraction of the cost. Metalysis significantly cuts down the traditional nine-stage process of converting the metal, not to mention that it reduces costs when combining titanium with aluminium for the production of automotive and aerospace parts. According to a Forbes.com report, the process is exactly what miners and manufacturers need and is especially a "perfect fit" with 3D printing technology, which is currently gaining popularity in the production of jet-engine parts and medical appliances.
It may be a far-fetched idea, but given the rising demand for the metal, would it be possible for scientists and miners to entertain the idea once again of mining the moon for titanium? It's probably a question hanging over the heads of those taking part in exploration activities on the lunar surface earlier on.
A new map of the moon revealing areas rich in titanium ore was unveiled in 2011 at a joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Nantes, France. "Some of the lunar rocks harbor 10 times as much of the stuff as rocks here on Earth do," noted Space.com. The Web site also noted that this discovery was seen by researchers as an event that could "lay the groundwork" for mining the moon.
"Looking up at the moon, its surface appears painted with shades of grey — at least to the human eye," Mark Robinson, of Arizona State University, said in a statement. "The maria appear reddish in some places and blue in others. Although subtle, these color variations tell us important things about the chemistry and evolution of the lunar surface. They indicate the titanium and iron abundance, as well as the maturity of a lunar soil."
Ian Crawford, professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck, University of London, believes that the prospects of mining the moon is feasible, but experts have to apply a two-pronged approach to it. "We need to think of a hierarchy of future applications. This begins with the use of lunar materials to facilitate human activities on the moon itself. We can then progress to the use of lunar resources to underpin a future industrial capability within the earth-moon system," he wrote in his column on The Conversation in 2014. "In this way, gradually increasing access to lunar resources may help 'bootstrap' a self-sustaining space-based economy from which the global economy will ultimately benefit."
The United Nations maintained that "member states are 'prohibited from appropriating the moon,'" according to a report by The Telegraph. For now, titanium mining may be limited to the earth's surface, but most companies do not mind, and are, in fact, focused on expanding their projects. For example, titanium explorer White Mountain Titanium Corporation (OTCQB:WMTM) in Chile is developing a project that has a capacity of 112 million tons of rutile in the Atacama region of Santiago. The asset also has a yearly output of 80,000 tonnes that could increase to over 130,000 tonnes of rutile in the fourth year of the mine's production.
Crawford explained that lunar rocks and soils containing raw materials like titanium and aluminium, silicon and iron are difficult to transport because these are heavy, thus, it makes sense to mine them for use in space first, such as in building a lunar industrial infrastructure that will supply parts to earth-orbiting stations. These parts may be structural components or silicon-based photovoltaic cells for harvesting solar power.
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