[el_zorro]

However, the lack of any hydrology on the surface of the moon means that ore veins will no exist, at least not at any level of purity that would warrant extraction. On Earth and Mars, running water has sorted minerals for us. The only thing you could really consistently 'mine' is He3 for fusion powerplants that don't yet exist, and oxygen + silicon/iron/calcium from the regolith. Hydrogen will have to be imported if anything useful is to be made, and it is cheaper to send hydrogen from Mars than it is to send it from Earth (if you can stand to wait a few months from shipment to delivery).