Lanthanum mining

[Hemdian]

My players discovered an asteroid rich in lanthanum and are thinking of mining it. This raises some questions:

• How much lanthanum ore can they extract per dton of asteroid, and what other valuable ores (and their proportions) would likely coexist (and thus also be extracted)?

• If one dton of lanthanum ore is refined, how much actual lanthanum would you get?

• How much is lanthanum ore worth per dton?

• How much is lanthanum worth per dton?

(I looked at RL prices for lanthanum and came up with a ballpark figure of MCr20 per dton of refined lanthanum and MCr1 per ton of lanthanum ore. While this doesn’t answer the other questions, do those numbers sound right?)

 

[agorski]

Sounds like they could easily make a fortune. Too easily. I'd throw lots of monkey wrenches into the machinery. Maybe someone else with bigger guns also stumbles across it.

 

[Condottiere]

Extraction costs, maybe.

How much it costs to mine it, then to refine it, and how much is the middlemen cut, if not outright purchase.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Sounds like they could easily make a fortune. Too easily. I'd throw lots of monkey wrenches into the machinery.

Why? What's wrong with having wealthy adventurers?

 

[kilemall]

Extraction costs, maybe.

How much it costs to mine it, then to refine it, and how much is the middlemen cut, if not outright purchase.

I would angle the story that it’s cutthroat competition to get that raw tonnage, only to see the real cream taken off the top by the refining and distribution people leaving the belters fractured and cheap.

Could be a righteous worker uprising story, or the players want their piece of the exploitation pie…

 

[Enoki]

Well, if you make the Lanthanum mixed with other elements, or an oxide, and in an asteroid with other elements in it, then require the players to refine it to make it marketable, meaning they have to find some company that will refine it, and that company wants a contract at some fairly substantial anount of credits, and then they have to mine and haul it to be refined, and...

Their million credit score becomes their thousands of credits score once they pay off all the costs of everything...

Sometimes it's better to sell off the rights to minerals than hold them hoping to recover them yourself. Also selling off mineral rights now for a hefty profit can be better than getting a small return forever off them. I know, I've been having to do that with oil mineral rights in Texas now (dead relatives and that sort of thing) for some time.

Find the right buyer and you score.

 

[Condottiere]

Workers might need extensive protective measures, and you might need to clean up the site.

Possible, an expensive environmental impact investigation beforehand.

 

[coliver988]

Workers might need extensive protective measures, and you might need to clean up the site.

Possible, an expensive environmental impact investigation beforehand.

not sure they need to worry about environmental aefects on an asteroid. unless we're talking moving it to a near-main world for easier access. but the workers - definitely protection from the normal vacuum and dangers of deep space.

 

[mike wightman]

How big is the asteroid they have discovered? Is it S or M type or other?

 

[Spartan159]

I am interested in the OP questions as well. I'm not worried about the player (me) having too much money, my character is rich anyway, that's not why he adventures. Some of y'all work real hard at keeping players poor.

Hemdian, for what it's worth, MgT2e High Guard asteroid mining rules put radioactive s at 1million per ton of ore.

Whether and how to keep the players poor is a separate question IMO.

 

[mike wightman]

1MCr to buy into TAS, 1MCr for clone life insurance, 1MCr for rejuv treatment, 1MCr per bioaugment - before long you could run out of cash...

Or they could make enough to buy a jump 3 speculative "trader"...

or both.

 

[Enoki]

I am interested in the OP questions as well. I'm not worried about the player (me) having too much money, my character is rich anyway, that's not why he adventures. Some of y'all work real hard at keeping players poor.

Hemdian, for what it's worth, MgT2e High Guard asteroid mining rules put radioactive s at 1million per ton of ore.

Whether and how to keep the players poor is a separate question IMO.

Lanthanum 139 is stable and makes up 99.9% of any found, at least on Earth... It isn't radioactive.

Right now, on Earth today the price per metric ton of Lanthanum is somewhere between $1300 and $2000. It isn't all that expensive.

 

[Vormaerin]

Why? What's wrong with having wealthy adventurers?

There's nothing wrong with wealthy adventurers. But if finding that kind of wealth as a wildcat miner is reasonable, then you need consider how that works for all the other folks (NPCs) who actually do this for a living. And you want to make it into an interesting adventure, imho. Something equivalent to gold rush miners, who had to deal with claim jumpers, robbers, and big mining companies.

 

[Condottiere]

Gold pressed lanthanum.

 

[infojunky]

(I looked at RL prices for lanthanum and came up with a ballpark figure of MCr20 per dton of refined lanthanum and MCr1 per ton of lanthanum ore. While this doesn’t answer the other questions, do those numbers sound right?)

Short answer, maybe 10% of that, raw ore still needs to be refined, and that is a bunch of the cost.

 

[mike wightman]

The gold, platinum and other metals you would extract from the same rock would likely net a tidy profit too.

 

[kilemall]

Workers might need extensive protective measures, and you might need to clean up the site.

Possible, an expensive environmental impact investigation beforehand.

Looks like the stuff reacts to water/moist air, fire or acids according to this hazmat sheet.

https://www.ameslab.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/57_Lanthanum_SDS.pdf

 

[Condottiere]

Could also be a cartel that controls distribution, if not the mining and refining parts, of lanthanum, whether official or unofficial.

Might be tolerated by the regional hegemon, in order to have an oversight as to starship production.

 

[Deldarius]

Your jump drive hull grid is made by DeBeers!

 

[Condottiere]

Or hull.