Financing Structure for the AMi Exploration Program — AMi, Part XIX
This article is dedicated to the AMi Exploration Program’s financing structure, describing the targeted revenue sources.
Contrary to all government-funded exploration and colonisation programs that don’t need to self-finance, the AMi Exploration Program starts from day one with economic viability in mind, and the use of space resources as the sole source of long-term program financing. That’s why it is vital for us to start mining as soon as possible, bring valuable metals back to Earth and sell them to further finance the Program and tackle Earth’s social problems.
There are two distinct stages of the AMi Exploration Program financing. The first stage lasts from the start of the program until the first asteroid-mining mission (2022–2027), when the first valuable metals are extracted and brought back to Earth. The second stage starts with the first asteroid-mining mission and lasts indefinitely.
The above chart showcase the needed amount coming from private sources (token sale, investment, etc) vs the projected revenue in the next 4 years after the investment.
The above chart showcase the budget required by the AMi Exploration program from the start until the $1 billion in revenue from commercial operations is to be reached.
For the first stage of the AMi Exploration Program, (2022–2027), we expect to raise $100 million, distributed as follows:
I. AMiE Token — We expect to raise a total of $72,850,544 from the private sale, presale and ICO. ARCA will make significant efforts to release and grow AMiE crypto, by employing top professionals for creation, distribution and development.
II. Merchandise — We aim to gain world-wide media exposure and sell AMi Exploration Program merchandise in multiple countries. The ARCA product range will include the usual items like T-shirts, hats, etc, as well as a line of fashion clothing. We currently explore the possibility to partner with a respectable fashion brand for this purpose. We expect merchandise sales to generate somewhere in the range of $2,400,000 over the next six years.
III. Sponsorships — Media promotions through the AMi Exploration Program and ARCA in general are a tempting proposition to companies that wish to have their message delivered to a global audience by becoming an ARCA sponsor. We expect our sponsorship deals to bring in $2,350,000 million over the next six years. However, after 2028 we plan to make fewer sponsorship deals, as most of our revenue should come from asteroid-mining activities.
IV. Volunteer work — We plan to attract around $950,000 worth of volunteer work.
V. Institutional investments — Our commercial business will not go through the classic, serial investment process (A, B, C). We plan to carefully select our investors and attract something in the range of $22,000,000 million over the next six years, but without granting them rights beyond those related to common stock. Between 2028 and 2031 we plan to take on fewer investors. The investments required after 2028 are difficult to quantify at this stage, as everything depends on the company’s actual growth.For the second stage of the AMi Exploration Program we will relay on asteroid-mining operations as well as on these investments.
Money from asteroid-mining operations is generated through: rare metals sales, like platinum, gold, and rhodium; lower value metals sales, like nickel, cobalt, and iron; and on space-located water, oxygen, and hydrogen sales.
We plan to sell rare metals directly to electronics companies that will use them on Earth. We will store lower value metal in our orbital depot and sell them to third parties for space-based applications. The same applies to the water, oxygen and hydrogen originated from space. We have no estimate for the market size for the lower value metals or for the water, oxygen and hydrogen stored in space and sold for space applications. However, we have some economic-based references.
A reusable Falcon 9, landing on the Drone Ship (probably the most cost effective rocket currently available) can launch 15.6 tons into LEO at a cost of $50 million, leading to a cost of $3,205/kg.
If the AMi Cargo delivers 2,500 kg of water to LEO, the value of that water, based on the cost of a Falcon 9 delivery, is $8,012,500. Selling it there can be a profitable activity in itself, as a water-carrying EcoRocket Heavy rocket launch costs $5,055,730. For asteroid-originated water, the cost is $5,798,703.
