Diamonds aren't expensive because they're rare; they're not. The monopoly is why they're expensive. That's not going to change with space mining.
The reason diamonds are becoming cheaper is because the barrier to entry is being lowered. Having a private space program more advanced than any nation state as a barrier of entry will not have the same effect.
Are they able to lab grow the same kind of gem quality diamonds that you usually think about when it comes to jewelry, or is it still mostly industrial applications (such as diamond tipped drill bits)?
It is the blood and slavery that make natural diamonds so valuable /s
Why not lab grown gold?
*(it's not a serious question)
Diamonds are just Carbon atoms in Chrystal form.
You can take carbon from say coal, turn it into a Chrystal and you've got a diamond.
Gold is just gold atoms, you can't make gold atoms
Well, you can make gold atoms (see here), but it takes many times more energy per atom because the energy contained in the bonds between neutrons and protons in the nucleous of atoms is many-fold the energy contained in the bonds between atoms (just see the difference in potency of conventional explosives - which release energy contained in the links between atoms - and fission and fusion bombs - which release the energy contained in the bonds within the atomic nucleous) hence it's not really an economic viable way of making gold.
I find the idea so dumb that we have a high value for a metal that objectively has few worthwhile uses. And because our folklore made up a high value from this. We’re gonna spend hella resources to extract it from fucking asteroids. Even tho it has no objective major value.
(Imagine how many people we could feed with those resources instead)
Gold has plenty of uses, besides being shiny and easy to work with. Imagine if all your electronics used gold traces because they were so cheap. Imagine if the windows of your car were coated in gold like on an airplane so you could easily defrost them in the winter rather than blowing air at it in the front and potentially distracting lines in the back. Imagine if gold was the filling of choice since it has a similar expansion rate to teeth. Gold has a number of applications in space. Ever wonder why the JWST is that color?
There are plenty of things gold would be excellent for if it wasn't so expensive.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/299609/gold-demand-by-industry-sector-share/
Only 7.16% of gold usage is for technology. The other 92.84% are just for purposes of being shiny. If we dropped gold from jewellery and as a proxy for money, there would be more than enough gold to go around and the price of gold would drop a lot.
Why are you surprised that the really expensive item isn't used for utility purposes? Why do you think its use wouldn't change if it was cheap?
Before aluminum was cheap to refine, it was used for cutlery and other displays of opulence. After it became cheaper, we used it everywhere.
Still not enough to use gold instead of copper for wiring
I don't think gold would make really good wiring.
Yeah, I just can't understand why people would pay more money for something that looks objectively nicer.
Fuck shiny polished gold, that is more easily made into jewelry, doesn't react with skin, compliments many gemstones, and doesn't significantly corrode, I want a pig iron wedding ring.
:)
It’s abundant though. We have thousands more times gold in circulation than used as jewellery. So if it were just jewellery then it’s be dirt cheap.
The reason its so expensive is people use it as investment. Like they hold massive amounts of it. It’s like a made up commodity.
still one of humanity's less stupid ideas, even so.
Gold mining is fairly expensive. According to this website, gold mining currently has a operating profit margin of 30%, while the average public company has an operating margin of 27%.
This lines up relatively well with this other dataset of US companies reporting 32% gross profit margins (go to the bottom of the page).
So it seems to me that gold mining isn't really that "special" compared other commodities.
Neat! Let it come down to it's real value.
Careful there, you'll trigger a lot of gold worshiping tryhards