[maaku]

Would it sound less far-fetched if we talked about mining asteroids for rare-earth metals, conductive metals like copper, industrial metals like titanium, etc?

[hugh3]

The sad part is that regardless of whether it's copper or gold, the economics of mining asteroids still doesn't work out.

[ericd]

Not yet. Give me a space elevator that gets me to geostationary orbit via electricity, and I think that statement could become untrue (assuming sufficient amount of ore and ease of extraction).

[maaku]

No, it just doesn't work out if you have a naive business model. Think a little bit and you'll find profitable ways to do it.

[sukuriant]

Gold is an industrial metal, though

[maaku]

Yes, but that has very little to do with its value on the exchange.