Asteroid passing by Earth may hold $5 trillion in precious metals

Forget the Pluto flyby. Metals bugs were buzzing Monday after a metallurgically rich asteroid rocketed past Earth on Sunday evening, boasting an out-of-this-world cache of precious metals. Astronomers speculated that the asteroid, known as 2011 UW-158, which passed about 1.5 million miles from Earth, might have carried as much as $5.4 trillion worth of precious metals and minerals, according to Slooh, which connects telescopes to the Internet. Slooh quoted Astronomer Bob Berman as saying this in a news release: “Can it be mined someday, perhaps not too far in the future?” Mining.com reported that scientists believe the half-kilometer-wide asteroid contains up to 90 million metric tons of platinum and other precious metals.   Market Watch