It is, but it's not financially viable under capitalism. If you mine rare earths, it floods the market and drops the price below viable levels, and the capital costs are too high to wait out until it his equilibrium. Otherwise we'd have started in 1975, because using an unmanned probe to boost a rock into HEO is not that hard, we've got orbital mechanics pretty much nailed down.
It is, but it's not financially viable under capitalism. If you mine rare earths, it floods the market and drops the price below viable levels, and the capital costs are too high to wait out until it his equilibrium. Otherwise we'd have started in 1975, because using an unmanned probe to boost a rock into HEO is not that hard, we've got orbital mechanics pretty much nailed down.