On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 06:03:09PM +1100, Greg Chalik wrote:
> Gold will still have its value in 3I?

I seriously doubt it.

On Earth, the value of gold is mostly due to the sparsity of deposits
near the surface.  Virtually all of Earth's gold is dissolved in the
metallic core -- trillions of tonnes of it.  Almost all of the gold
that has ever been mined came from the comparatively tiny volume of
meteorites that fell to the surface long after the Earth formed.  Some
of those had the metal weathered out and and concentrated by various
processes.

Virtually all of the accessible gold in the solar system is still out
there in asteroids.  From analysing meteorites, we have a lot of
evidence that the average concentration in metallic bodies out there
should be very much higher than the best mines on Earth.

Cheap space travel, somewhat better automation, and abundant fusion
energy should drive the Traveller cost of refining gold to at most
about the current price of copper; something like 1 Cr/kg.  But then
most of the economics in Traveller never did make sense, so pick any
value you like.

- Tim