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NASA wants to uncover the mystery behind the asteroid “16 Psyche.” that may contain a priceless treasure trove of minerals. “We’ve been to all the different planets, we’ve been to other asteroids. But we’ve never visited a body that has been made of entirely metal,” said Carol Polanskey, project scientist for the Psyche mission. Now NASA, led by researchers at Arizona State University, plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to orbit 16 Psyche – an asteroid roughly the size of Massachusetts, made of iron and other precious metals. The mission’s leader estimates that the iron alone on today’s market would be worth $10,000 quadrillion.
Previously: NASA Selects Two Missions to Visit Asteroids
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NASA Asteroid Mission -- Metals "Worth" Ten Thousand Quadrillion Dollars
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday January 20 2017, @04:40AM
I'm not sure if there's any direct evidence at this point, but I think it's considered a reasonable speculation - in the absence of planetary geology and weathering effects, metals should tend to congregate together - similar densities (compared to CHON, etc), similar chemistries and responses to electromagnetic forces, etc. So as the protoplanetary disc condensed, the metals would tend to clump together.
In this case they're going a step further - they think this thing is an ejected protoplanetary core, meaning it would have been subjected to even further density-based concentrations, and likely have a similar ratio of metals to the cores of other rocky planets. Which are kind of an unknown at this point, but predicted to be rich in heavy metals.
As for speculation... probably similar to if someone figured out a cheap and environmentally friendly method to concentrate valuable metals from seawater - can I interest you in corrosion-resistant gold-plated sewer pipes? Most "precious metals" actually have physically valuable properties, totally aside from the dollar value our economic game assigns them.