Gold pan
It sounds like an April fool’s gag, but no:
‘Details have been emerging of the plan by billionaire entrepreneurs to mine asteroids for their resources.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17827347
They claim:
“We’re in this for decades. But it’s not a charity. And we’ll make money from the beginning.”
B-b-but what about all that CO2 from rocket fuel burning?
Tut-tut 😉
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Warp Drive! 😉
Just to let you readers know. US Conservative website Hot Air’s comment Registration open for one day today:
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/04/24/comment-registration-is-now-open-10/
They will need an electric drive first. Roman candle technology is too dangerous and costly. pg
It’ll be interesting to see how this actually works out – probably not as we might first expect. The fact that slope-browed humanoids will struggle with mightily is that ‘out there’ there is no resource scarcity, there is plenty of everything.
The problem future asteroid miners are most likely to face is trying prop up the prices in the face of the overwhelming abundance of stuff. Of course slope-browed-retro-troglodytes being what they are I’m sure there will be plenty of recidivist attempts at: monopolies and cartels, fear, intimidation, exploitation, and coercion. Alternatively Humanity may grow up. Of course if we DON’T grow up our machines WILL probably replace us – and good riddance to us if we fail our A-Levels as a global civilization.
W^3
The security issue could be interesting, e.g. how would you keep your commercial rival’s robot from pinching your gold?