Lunar mineral turns up in Oz Until now, the mineral tranquillityite – consisting of iron, zirconium, yttrium, titanium, silicon and oxygen, and almost completely useless – has only been observed in rocks brought back from the glory days of the moon landings. Now, a team of scientists in Western Australia has found it for the first time in Earthbound samples …
"Until now, the mineral tranquillityite – consisting of iron, zirconium, yttrium, titanium, silicon and oxygen, and almost completely useless"
That's not quite the same as this:
"While economically useless"
You could do all sorts of things with it.
I could build you a plant (OK, know how to get someone to build it for you) which would extract that titanium to make white paint from quite easily. Cook it with coal, spray it with chlorine and then separate the chlorides via fractional distillation.
Be bloody expensive white paint, true.
Remember, the difference between dirt and ore is the cost of processing......
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