THE global investment bank Goldman Sachs has claimed mining asteroids for precious metals is a "realistic" goal.

It has released a report exploring the possibility of using an "asteroid-grabbing spacecraft" to extract platinum from space rocks.

"While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower," the report said, according to Business Insider.

"Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-grabbing spacecraft could cost $2.6bn."

The bank added: "Space mining could be more realistic than perceived."

It is believed an asteroid the size of a football field could be worth up to £40 billion.

However, bringing that much platinum back to Earth is likely to crash the precious metal market - and probably the rest of the economy with it.