ИСТИНА

In recent times, you can hear the debate on the use of resources concentrated in the near-Earth asteroids. According to recent data 90% of the total number of asteroids are of stone and only a few per cent is made of metal (iron-nickel). But even in a small (diameter about 1 km and a mass of 2 billion tons) stone asteroid the metal fraction is about 200 million tons. Bulk of this fraction accounts for iron. Small components are nickel - 30 million tons, cobalt - 1.5 million tons, and platinum group metals (silver, gold, platinum) - 7500 t. Market value of just this very small part of the asteroid could reach more than $ 150 billion. Particular attention should be paid to the cobalt content. On Earth, this metal is mainly used for special alloys with qualities such as high heat resistance, superhardness, resistance against corrosion, etc. Industrial cobalt content in the ore is from frac-tions of a percent up to 4%. World reserves of cobalt today are estimated to be about 3 million tons. Conse-quently, only one small stone asteroid contains half of all terrestrial strategic resources of this metal.