01/24/2021
Metals :
Iron, Copper, gold, silver, platinum and all the others. For millenia they set the standard of value, were considered most valuable. And now they are also needed for a host of industrial and technical purposes and incorporated into valuable art objects. Out in the solar system and closer than the orbit of Saturn, in fact not far beyond Mars, the metals and minerals most used in industry, art, and as standards of value can be found and collected in abundance. Once mining in the asteroids and the Moons of Jupiter is viable (probably within the next century), the market value of these metals will consist more in the costs of their extraction and transport than the scarcity (usually artificial) and traditional intrinsic value as a standard of exchange. A metric ton of any of them will probably be the cost of collection including transport and current market availability. And the need for them in industrial and technical applications and products will make them just another commodity. Of course there will continue to be considerable profit in providing them to the markets that need them but they will probably no longer be seen as hedges against economic downturns.
I think we will see the Russian approach of stations and orbital habitats (which can provide gravity by spin : centrifugal force) and eventually through fields and waves research, figure out how to modulate gravity on ships and stations and perhaps even on asteroid bases. The human organism, evolved under Earth gravity, doesn't hold up well, long term without it. There are, however, industrial and medical processes and procedures that are much more effectively an easily done under low or no gravity. Expansion into local space and mining appear to be eminently achievable.
There remain some questions about our Moon. Is there actually someone on the dark side ? Why haven't we returned ? Why hasn't anyone attempted to establish at least a research station ? The Moon does represent nearby real estate and resources, and there is even the possibility of a beanstalk arrangement to cut the cost of chemical rocket lift to orbit. Not all the way to the Moon of course but, to a geocentric orbit station from which passengers and freight could be transferred to longer range craft without the expenditure of chemical fuels to break orbit.
New technologies are on the horizon and many of them will contribute to an expansion into the solar system. One of the reasons is metals. Another is that space is the natural place for industries that tend to pollute and sprawl. And there are already commercial ventures and private research aimed at making it a reality. That may happen faster than we think or lag. I suspect it has lagged so far due to a combination of cost and politics. The pressures of work space and the impending need for metals must change that picture. And in fact if population and pollution continue to increase, even at current rates, it won't be all that long before food (from hydroponics and fungi farms) and water (there is a lot of that frozen out there) may become major imports from space. The point is, technological hurdles are being negotiated and surface pressures have begun to build. And more breakthrough are in the works on both fronts. But the future of investment in precious metals as an investment hedge is probably doomed.