Good job. As you state, the data is old, but the concept is still valid. I'd have to dig up the latest numbers to add to your tables. Strangely enough, the silver might be the most valuable material. It has thousands of uses in our technological society, and probably more so in the outer space environment. Silver makes the best mirrors and conductors. And, while most people don't realize it, since we consume silver, we've been using it up faster than we can mine or recycle it. There are those that claim there is more gold above ground and available for use than there is silver.
The discussion of metals on asteroids tends to focus on the mining or the transportation of the raw materials. Equal to those issues is the refining of the ore into single metals. I'm no metalurgist, but these things are more complicated than just separation by temperature. There is milling, and coking, and various gravity fed processes. Studies have been done on doing this in zero g, but only on a small scale. Furthermore, many materials needed for the process might have to brought from earth, on a vast scale. (lime, sulfuric acid, carbon, etc.) Water is needed for many stages, but that can be recycled.
Space/Science » in reply to I loaded JPGs into Flickr
Thanks TB