Myth: Mining the moon

It may seem to younger persons who were not part of the time of great enthusiasm for space exploration that to suggest mining the moon is ridiculous. But older persons recall the heady days of early lunar exploration when this idea was proposed. Mining the moon was one of the seriously suggested reasons widely discussed and advocated for lunar exploration. The minerals would be brought back to Earth for processing, or mineral processing stations could be set up on the moon and the refined product brought to Earth.
Reality:
Small samples of moon rock have been brought back to Earth. Unfortunately, from the samples taken, the moon appears to be made up largely of a rock very similar to basalt here on Earth, of which there is a vast supply and which has no commercially useful mineral composition. The surface moon rocks do apparently have a slightly higher iron content than the average composition of the Earth, but going to the moon to mine iron does not seem to have attractive economics in either the near or foreseeable future. The energy cost of transportation would be astronomical.

Copyright 1997, Walter L. Youngquist -- Posted with permissionfrom GeoDestinies, by Walter Youngquist PhD & Chair Emeritus,Department of Geology, University of Oregon;National Book Company, 1997; ISBN 0894202995