Space Mining: Ore Availability and Yield

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The "geology" of these post-catastrophe asteroid belts is the same as that of the terrestriakl type worlds they used to be ...

Statistically, at least, you are going to have a hard time finding anything very different from regular, remnants-of-planet-formation asteroids. The Earth's whole crust is roughly 0.5% of its total mass. The portion where interesting geological processes have occurred is even smaller.

Pallasite meteorites demonstrate that the results of unlikely events can be found, but it's hard to base an entire industry around them. Larry Niven's stasis boxes (e.g.) were a useful narrative device precisely because they were detectable without a lifetime of searching for each one.