Space Mining

Some things which are rare on earth exist in plentiful supply in space, even within just the cloud of near-earth objects. It is not uncommon to find objects weighing thousands of tons of pure platinum or cobalt. Space mining was still a nacent industry toward the end of the Age of Shackles, but was seen as necessary to keep pace with humanity's voraceous apetite for electronics and the batteries that power them.
Even under late capitalism, space mining has always been performed by robots. It is simply unreasonably and needlessly dangerous for humans to do. Massive mining machine carve off chunks of mineral, affix solar-powered ion thrusters to them, and use predominantly orbital mechanics and gravity to move payloads around the system. Initial attempts saw mining companies send 100 ton chunks of metal into a decaying orbit around the earth, eventually collecting the material from the ocean after impact. This was eventually replaced by large scale orbital manufacturing platforms, only sending finished products down to the surface as needed.
As space mining matured, humanity left the notion of scarcity firmly in the past, suddenly awash in more material wealth than had ever existed on the earth in past eras. From hydrogen to astatine, all of natures elements are available in quanitites so vast as to boggle the mind.