[freebeard]

Will asteroid mining crash the value of metals, or will it be neutron transmutation?

Einstein’s Lost Hypothesis

Once produced, these free neutrons could act as a kind of “philosopher’s stone.” They could, for example, create plutonium atoms from uranium. In fact they could theoretically transmute any element in the universe.

Neutron transmutation could in principle produce precious metals—the wild dream of medieval alchemists. But the cost to do so would be prohibitive. Today, though, a different and more alluring goal beckons: clean energy.