Asteroids

Three reasons I can think of off the top of my head:

1) For use in space settlements/factories so they won't have to pay to
get it shipped out of Earth's gravity well.

2) As a low impact (to Earth inhabitants) alternative to mining gold
here on Earth.

3) As a low-cost way to generate revenue once a mining infrastructure
has already been set up outside the gravity well. Once we're already
out there mining the stuff for our own use, I have no doubt we will
ship some of our spoils back planet-side for a happy profit both for
the miners and for the purchasers still on Earth.

My question is why would we go all the way to Io for these resources?
Are there any resources floating around Jupiter that we can't find
closer to home in NEOs or at least the asteroid belt?

Cheers,
--Justin

From: Lucio de Souza Coelho

However, I doubt that gold in Io would attract investment. Why bother
to go to Jupiter get it when you can mine tons of the stuff here on
Earth?