Much money was invested in the Earth's asteroid belt. Small very expensive ships were sent to map and investigate potential high ore planetoids. Companies did some mining but there is no profit in iron ore up in space. Earth's iron ore still is plentiful. The gold and platinum finds plunged Earth prices into collapse.
Water is more valuable.
But rocket fuel needs to be separated with expensive equipment. Then news brakes, in 2045, of a massive movement of spacecraft into Earth orbit. The Chinese were on their way to Lunar North. Within weeks they had the first industrial strength sling in Earth orbit. It was no small project.