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I've heard of the concept from multiple sources of mining metals such as iron , gold , silver , copper , nickel , cobalt , titanium and platinum from asteroids. Is there anywhere in the solar system other than earth from where we could mine say diamonds , rubies or emeralds?

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    $\begingroup$ There may be diamonds in Neptune & Uranus, but they may never be accessible. See astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/31751/16685 $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 4:37
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    $\begingroup$ Mining precious metals and gemstones in space and transporting them to Earth would be extremely expensive, much more than their value on Earth. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 14:59

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You won’t get diamonds, emeralds or rubies forming on asteroids. Diamonds require the pressure and temperature found in the deep mantle. Rubies also require intense heat and pressure, and are usually found in areas of continental collision. Emeralds require hot, mineral rich fluids to interact with rocks containing beryllium… usually in areas of tectonic fracture.

These processes are all closely tied to the tectonic structure of the Earth and will not be found on asteroids.

Other processes could possibly produce gemstones (see PM 2Ring’s comment) deep in gas giants, but harvestable gemstones would most likely be found on rocky bodies with current or past tectonic activity.

However, synthetic diamonds, rubies and emeralds have identical properties to "natural" gems and are a fraction of the price. All diamond mining (terrestrial and otherwise) will likely become as extinct as T. Rex within a few decades.

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    $\begingroup$ Are most asteroids unrelated to planets? If yes, how do they form? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 18:10
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    $\begingroup$ @AMcKelvy I have some info about asteroid formation here: astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/49425/16685 As I said there, "most meteorites that we've examined don't show evidence of the effects of substantial heat during their formation". Also, from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_belt "About 60% of the main belt mass is contained in the four largest asteroids: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. The total mass of the asteroid belt is estimated to be 3% that of the Moon". $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 19:51
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    $\begingroup$ @PM2Ring fascinating. Thank you. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 20:19
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    $\begingroup$ @KasieReam ... Venus and Mars have tectonic features (rifting and faulting) but no Earth-like plate tectonics (rigid plates with converging and diverging boundaries). It is at these boundaries where emeralds and rubies form. I contrast, diamonds tend to form mid-plate (where the mantle is thick) and are brought to the surface by volcanism. Both Venus and Mars have had volcanic activity which may have brought diamonds to the surface. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 20:55
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    $\begingroup$ [-1] for "These processes are all closely tied to the tectonic structure of the Earth and will not be found on asteroids." Unsupported by sources and ignores the origin of asteroids which is often busted up rocky planets which may indeed have had conditions to form at least some of these things. Stack Exchange answers need to support their scientific assertions with supporting sources, otherwise folks can just make stuff up and so there's no way to tell if an answer is made up or correct. Supporting assertions with authoritative sources is a cornerstone of Stack Exchange! $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 26 at 0:52
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Many tradition gemstones require geological processes to form through either high temperature/pressure or dissolving and crystallization which are unlikely to have taken place for asteroids and while plausible on planets may be less accessible than equivalent materials on earth even before factoring in travel costs.

There are however a number of processes more likely to occur naturally in space, especially where a single process can work undisturbed for millions of years that mean there will be interesting and unique gem like objects to be found.

From the mining perspective however while early examples of a given type will be highly valuable, that will only be while they are unique and somewhat mysterious. As soon as any form of organised recovery is attempted the price would be expected to crash, especially where artificial versions are possible.

Useful as plot point in a story where an astronaut smuggles a pocketful home, less so for planning a business around.

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Is there anywhere in the solar system other than earth from where we could mine say diamonds , rubies or emeralds?

While the first answer covers the production of gemstones in the hot, high pressure interiors of rocky planets, and posits the lack thereof in asteroid fragments of early rocky bodies, rocky planets are not the only place in the solar system where high pressure and high temperature meet complex chemistry.

I'll leave it up to others to address how difficult mining the depths of gas giant atmospheres or interiors (depending on how you look at it) will be, but there is indeed reason to suspect that diamonds might exist in large quantities in the gas giants.

FIRST go directly to Astronomy SE's Diamonds in Neptune? and "mine" all the helpful information in answers there.

THEN come back and continue reading here.

New atmospheric data for the gas giants indicates that carbon is abundant in its dazzling crystal form, they say.
Lightning storms turn methane into soot (carbon) which as it falls hardens into chunks of graphite and then diamond.
These diamond "hail stones" eventually melt into a liquid sea in the planets' hot cores, they told a conference, external.
The biggest diamonds would likely be about a centimetre in diameter - "big enough to put on a ring, although of course they would be uncut," says Dr Kevin Baines, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He added they would be of a size that the late film actress Elizabeth Taylor would have been "proud to wear".
"The bottom line is that 1,000 tonnes of diamonds a year are being created on Saturn.
"People ask me - how can you really tell? Because there's no way you can go and observe it.
"It all boils down to the chemistry. And we think we're pretty certain."

From the ABSTRACT BOOK of the 45th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) 6-11 October 2013, Denver, Colorado (found at https://aas.org/meetings/dps45 and also archived)

512.09 – Diamond and other forms of elemental carbon in Saturn’s deep atmosphere M. L. Delitsky(1), K. H. Baines(2)
(1) California Specialty Engineering, Flintridge, CA, United States. (2) University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States.
The energetic lightning storms in the Saturn atmosphere will dissociate molecules into atoms, ions and plasma. Specifically, methane will be dissociated into elemental carbon, most probably in an amorphous form, such as fluffy turbostratic carbon or irregular soot particles. Once formed, this non-crystalline carbon sinks down through the atmosphere reaching an altitude of similar density. Amorphous carbon is converted to graphite under pressure. Graphite has a density of ~2.2 g/cc at room temperature. The density of diamond is ~3.3 g/cc at STP. However, at much higher pressures, the density of diamond increases dramatically, up to 9 grams/cm3 at P=1500 GPa (15 Mbar). As carbon descends through the atmosphere, amorphous carbon becomes graphite which then is converted into diamond, creating various strata of carbon allotropes according to their densities. Densities of the planets increase with depth. Eventually, at great depths, diamond will melt, forming liquid diamond. The melting point of diamond varies with pressure, reaching a high of ~ 8000 K at 500 GPa (5 Mbar). Using updated adiabats and equation-of-state data from Nettelmann et al. (2011), we determined the altitude at which diamond reaches its melting point on each planet. Combining these adiabats with new data for the carbon phase diagram from high-pressure shockwave experiments indicates that diamond may be a stable layer in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. Previously, only Uranus and Neptune were thought to have conditions in their interiors that would allow the formation of diamond at their cores. It appears that the interior of Jupiter gets hot enough to reach the liquid diamond region of the carbon phase diagram, whereas the interior of Saturn includes regions of temperature and pressure where carbon could exist as solid diamond. At the boundaries (locations of sharp increases in density) on Jupiter and Saturn, there may be diamond rain or diamond oceans sitting as a layer. However, in Uranus and Neptune, the temperatures never reach as high as 8000 K. The cores are ~5000K, too cold for diamond to melt on these planets. Therefore, it appears that diamonds are forever on Uranus and Neptune but not on Jupiter and Saturn.

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