QUESTION:
Do you think that we could find gold, silver or Iron on Mars? 

ANSWER from Jeff Plescia on May 5, 1997:
Iron would be very easy to find on Mars; gold and silver may be more
difficult.

Gold and silver and usually produced in complex systems involving
water circulating in the ground around volcanic intrusions. Typically
these volcanoes are granitic. The gold and silver from in veins due
to precipiation of minerals from the very hot water. On Mars there
are volcanoes and there was water, but the volcanoes do not appear
to be granitic and it is uncertain how long the circulation of water
around the volcanoes might have occurred. A lot of exploration would
have to be done to determine whether there was gold or silver.

Iron occurs everywhere on Mars. The reason the planet is red is because
all of the iron is "rusty" (oxidized). Soil could simply be processes to remove
the iron. Iron may also occur in more concentrated forms, but it is not known
where that might be.