[jlarocco]

First, there's already a ceiling on the price from the current supply. The price can only go down.

Second, if it works out for them and they're able to start mining these, other people will start doing it, too.

[lusr]

Out of curiosity, what happens if a second company (say, Anglo Platinum) goes out there and blows up the facilities of these guys? Maybe even murders their miners (if there are to be any humans out there). What would the legal protection be?

[jerf]

"Out of curiosity, what happens if a second company (say, Anglo Platinum) goes out there and blows up the facilities of these guys?"

War.

However, the good news is that even on Earth the benefits of cooperation tend to outweigh the benefits of aggression, in space for the foreseeable future it will be even more so. It is so, so easy to trash a space facility and so, so hard to defend against it that in essence all private companies in space will de facto be in a MAD situation should they decide to go that route. It will be a long time before anyone will have a position where they can afford to attack somebody and have a reasonable expectation of survival.

[gojomo]

…other people will start doing it too…

What if the pioneer's space manufacturing, using their cheap and plentiful resources, gives them an insurmountable lead? They win the race to claim and defend new prospects against latecomers.

(To the planetbound, this might just look like a suspiciously long string of failures by all subsequent foothold missions…)