Re: Who is developing astroid mining techniques?

A private company called SpaceDev is currently the only commercial firm that I know that is trying to develop commercial exploration of asteroids although they have been under some investigation about concerns that their projected finances may not be totally accurate. You can also read more about SpaceDev and near-Earth asteroids in this NBC story.

SpaceDev intends to launch a probe to the asteroid Nereus (Near - Us!) in 2002, and, interestingly, this asteroid is also the target of a joint Japanese-US probe known as MUSES-C.

I guess that the answer to your question as to why there don't seem to be people flocking to develop asteroid mining is a cultural one. Space exploration has always been extremely expensive and the work of government organisations. It will take a few entrepreneurs to show that the sums really do add up for the whole proposition to be financially feasible for more to follow. It would be fair to say that SpaceDev's financial projections have come in for some criticism, but you can read much more about that at the Web sites I listed above.

[Moderator note: The bottom line really is the cost. It is estimated that launching a pound of material (people, mining equipment, etc.) into space costs roughly US $10,000. Unless and until the cost of launching material decreases, it will be difficult for asteroid mining operations to be economically competitive with terrestrial mining operations. Not to mention the fact that asteroid mining is somewhat more technically challenging than terrestrial mining.]