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It might turn out that the asteroid belt would be a cheaper source of minerals than Mars--if so, it would be cheaper to ship them to Earth directly from the belt rather than to use Mars as a staging or processing area.
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True. Although precious metals and indutrial metals probably are available on Mars, the real mining action will be in the asteroid belt. A "triangle trade" is often discussed between Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt, in which Earth ships high-tech manufactured goods to Mars, Mars ships low-tech staples of life like food, water, and organic materials to the asteroid belt, and the asteroid belt sends precious metals back to Earth.