However, even though there are many precious metals and minerals on the moon, the most valuable resource is
Lunar resources will be important for common lithophile elements such as aluminum, titanium, and calcium. And the Moon may also have ores of rare, incompatible, lithophile elements such as beryllium, lithium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, and so forth.
There are some extremely valuable resources on the moon that could support such a lunar economy. Helium-3 is one moon resource that is rare on earth but much more abundant on the lunar surface and could potentially be cheaper to mine from the moon. Helium-3 is a very attractive fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors.
Solar power, oxygen, and metals are abundant resources on the Moon. Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti).
Digging a little deeper than the Moon's crust, scientists have discovered that the Moon does indeed have a number of precious metals such as gold and silver.
The moon isn't so barren after all. A 2009 NASA mission—in which a rocket slammed into the moon and a second spacecraft studied the blast—revealed that the lunar surface contains an array of compounds, including gold, silver, and mercury, according to PBS.
Scientists found a single crystal of a new phosphate mineral while analyzing lunar basalt particles, which were collected from the moon two years ago by the Chang'e-5 mission.
More than 1.7 kg of lunar samples were collected and delivered safely to Earth. The Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology has named the phosphate mineral Changesite-(Y), after the mythological Chinese goddess of the moon, Chang'e. The crystal is transparent and roughly the width of a single human hair.
Moon Metals and More
It should come as no surprise that common minerals, including basalt, iron, quartz and silicon, have been detected on the moon, according to NASA.
Satellite imaging has shown that the top 10 centimetres of regolith (moon soil) at the south pole of the moon appear to hold about 100 times more gold than the richest mines on earth. Only a few years ago, most geologists would have laughed at the idea of mining anything from our moon.
The crystal is made of a new mineral called Changesite—Y. It was named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, who also inspired China's series of lunar missions.
Lunar granites are relatively rare rocks that include diorites, monzodiorites, and granophyres. They consist of quartz, plagioclase, orthoclase or alkali feldspar, rare mafics (pyroxene), and rare zircon. The alkali feldspar may have unusual compositions unlike any terrestrial feldspar, and they are often Ba-rich.
Meteorites and our moon contain a higher percentage of platinum than can be found on the Earth.
Availability on the Moon
Lithium is available in the lunar regolith. Average concentration is low at 10 ppm.
These titanium-rich areas on the moon puzzled the researchers. The highest abundance of titanium in similar rocks on Earth hovers around 1 percent or less, the scientists explained. The new map shows that these troves of titanium on the moon range from about 1 percent to a little more than 10 percent.
Lava flows that turned into rocks on the moon are enriched with titanium in concentrations far higher than what is found on Earth. The precious material could be used to construct equipment for lunar and other spacecraft.
The most abundant element found on the Moon is oxygen (about nearly 42%) among others. Iron, Silicon, Magnesium, Calcium, Titanium, etc are the elements found on the surface of the Moon.
The two most common kinds are basalts and anorthosites. The lunar basalts, relatively rich in iron and many also in titanium, are found in the maria. In the highlands the rocks are largely anorthosites, which are relatively rich in aluminum, calcium, and silicon.
Lunar Formation Process: When the Moon formed about 4.53 billion years ago, it was created from the debris of a massive impact between Earth and a Mars-sized celestial body. During this process, some gold from Earth and/or the impacting body may have been incorporated into the Moon's composition.
The first rover to visit the far side of the moon, China's Yutu-2, has found stark differences between there and the near side. These include stickier, more supportive soil on the far side and a greater abundance of small rocks and impact craters.
The moon is strewn with minuscule beads of glass that have formed over billions of years as soil ejected during asteroid impacts cools and falls back to the lunar surface. An analysis of lunar samples delivered to Earth by China's Chang'e-5 probe has now revealed that those beads contain a substantial amount of water.
NASA's prolific Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) found rich evidence of iron and titanium oxides under the surface of the moon, which may show a close connection with Earth's early history. Scientists have been debating how the moon formed for decades.
China's so excited about a new mineral it found on the moon that it's not wasting any time. The country's National Space Administration plans to deploy three moon orbiters in the next 10 years to potentially mine more of this lunar mineral.
There is an asteroid with a metal-composition that lurks around between Mars and Jupiter while orbiting the Sun and it is made up mainly of gold. Named 'Psyche 16', it was first discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and he named the asteroid after the Greek Goddess of Soul 'Psyche'.