>>58
Traditional mining companies will have to adopt that technology to survive. If not, we will see big ore cunts pushing for regulations to protect their interests. However, no amount of regulation will stop progress, only delay it.
We'll definitely see the price in ore drop to a certain degree, depending on the amount of taxation and regulations the gubbermint puts in. However this will secure a large amount of private funding for research into spacecrafts, as more companies invest in more efficient technology to harvest the asteroids. Where that will lead is a bit more uncertain, but we can expect better spacecrafts at least.
Although I can also see the moon being harvested, I'm not sure if significant harvesting will affect our ability to colonise the moon.
I am however, concerned about companies pulling asteroids into orbit around Earth and fucking it up during the process, but as long as they don't use asteroids that are too fucking big it'll be fine. We probably have to invest in ground and orbital missile platforms of some sort to blow shit up if it gets out of hand. (Can we make missiles that work in space? Shouldn't be too hard right?)