Is there mercury on Mercury? Options

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

This may sound like a completely stupid and whimsical question, or else give the UMSF food for thought. But does anyone know if there has been any work done on estimating the abundances of metals on Mercury, and with this in mind, in particular I'm wondering if planet Mercury's namesake element, the liquid metal mercury, could exist as an ore in the crust of Mercury?

I guess this speculation is pretty fanciful, but could it be possible for Mercury to contain its namesake metal?

And leading on from that, could Mercury, Mars or Venus contain precious metals such as silver, gold or platinum worth mining in commercial quantities eventually? Or can such metals only be created in sufficient concentrations on Earth only, due to its plate tectonics?

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

It's interesting that you mention Venus. I think that there'd be an almost certainty that volanism is still going on. We just haven't seen it yet. The Messenger mission scientists announced earlier this year that they spotted unmistakable volcanic features on the edge of the Caloris Basin of Mercury, so we do know that Mercury was volcanic in its past. I have a hunch that Mars probably contains commercially minable quantities of iron and iron loving metals, but we just don't know for certain yet.

It's also interesting that you mention Io, yes Io could conceivably be a source of many heavy/precious metals, but the problem in accessing a pretty much molten suface would be difficult.

But what about precious metals, like gold, silver, platinum and rhodium? Would these be available in extractable quantities on the other terrestrial planets, like Venus and Mars?