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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 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[-] [email protected] 49 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

i mean it would take a total restructuring of the economy for asteroid mining to be even twice the cost of terrestrial mining. i'll be honest i think nine tenths of anything labelled "futurism" is just bullshitting and hoping one of your predictions works out.

[-] [email protected] 31 points 5 days ago

sorry i can't get over this on a site that otherwise mostly values critical reasoning and some semblance of materialism will read a post saying that asteroid mining could "maybe" be profitable in "20 years" and no one asks them how exactly they arrived at that estimate or what that's based on. is China the magic word? are we doing Abundance Communism?

[-] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago

asteroid mining could "maybe" be profitable in "20 years"

It's a very my-hero claim lol

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

The site skews younger, and 20 years feels like a very long time when you're 25.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

some rich guy who's an anti-goldfinger space mining a shitton of gold to crash the gold market because he shorted it somehow is more likely than a legit venture.

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this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025

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