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Lab-grown diamonds have helped diamond prices plunge 60%, and former monopolist De Beers is in crisis mode. One day asteroid mining will do the same for gold. (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 days ago by RedWizard@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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cross-posted from: https://futurology.today/post/5004513

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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[-] mayo_cider@hexbear.net 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I honestly think we'll be melting the crown jewels for circuitry before asteroid mining will be economically viable

Electronics and science are the only real material uses for gold, everything else is vanity or an investment

The price of getting anything to the orbit won't be able to compete with the amount of gold in people's attics let alone the current mining production unless the demand for it explodes

[-] Xiisadaddy@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 6 days ago

Also just reusing what we have. It's not like the new electronics use an insanely higher amount of gold than the older ones. We can just use chemical processes to extract the gold from old circuit boards, and refine it again to be reused in new ones. We don't need to go get more from asteroids at all. Not unless the population explodes or something. We all already have a phone. Theres more old laptops sitting around not being used in most countries than there are people who need a new laptop. Theres no reason we can't just reuse those same raw materials again for the new stuff.

I think we will see old landfills and wate disposal sites being literally mined for the old circuit boards we threw away over the past 50 years eventually. Theres so much useful stuff raw materials wise in old trash heaps. We just have to find better ways to process it. Which while not free to do is much cheaper than space mining lol.

[-] mayo_cider@hexbear.net 17 points 6 days ago

I think we will see old landfills and wate disposal sites being literally mined for the old circuit boards we threw away over the past 50 years eventually. Theres so much useful stuff raw materials wise in old trash heaps. We just have to find better ways to process it. Which while not free to do is much cheaper than space mining lol.

exactly, its the same argument as with terraforming Mars

if we could make Mars habitable, we also could reverse climate change on Earth literally millions of years