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Diamond prices are down 60% since a 2011 high, and they are still falling. It's not all down to lab-grown diamonds, demand is down too, especially in China.

No one can lab-grow gold yet, so its rarity and scarcity protect its value, but that will end too. It's just a question of when. China launched an asteroid touch-down mission this week, which will make it the 4th country/region to do so, after Europe, the US & Japan.

How soon will it be feasible to mine asteroids? Who knows, but a breakthrough in space propulsion might mean the prospect happens quickly when it does. It's possible gold has twenty years or less of being high value left.

The $80 Billion Diamond Market Crash Leaves De Beers Reeling

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[-] tankfox@midwest.social 6 points 1 week ago

What about those things require any g?

Asteroid miners are going to have more in common with spiders than anything else; find a tasty roid, wrap it up in cling wrap and set off bombs inside of it until it's a bag of gravel, then get the whole mess spinning and just let go of the stuff you don't want to keep. Hell when you're done you can re-harvest the angular momentum to propel you over to the next roid and start the process over again.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social -1 points 1 week ago

So easy, why hasn't anyone done it already????

[-] tankfox@midwest.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Easy? Who said easy? I didn't say easy, I just explained a way it could be accomplished while conserving as much energy as possible.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I mean, most space travel ideas haven't been done, even ones that are many decades old. Shit's expensive and risky, both as an investment and an activity.

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

For the same reason most other things involving space haven't been done yet. We as a species suck at prioritising stuff and allocating resources

this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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