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Cost probably would depend on the 'moat', i.e. how easy is it for another player to enter the market.

On the other hand, we may get a kind of OPEC of asteroid miners.

The problem with cartels like this is that all it takes is a single person to break to cartel, for the whole thing to come crashing down.

Someone might even do it as a charity operation.

Considering that bringing the resources to Earth would still require landing rights, I'd imagine such a cartel would be easy to break by the world's governments.

and considering that if the cartel was blocking you, but you had a few hundred thousand tons of metal in orbit.. you could just send down a bit for free..

Governments these days compete with each other to pander to corporations. The promise of a few jobs and a few political donations is enough to get a government to do just about anything you want.

Yes, you are right. And these governments compete with each other.

For every government supporting cartels there will be a dozen trying to break them, because of how much money you can make by breaking a cartel.

Greed still wins, for the betterment of humans.

Not in the diamond business. A player who won't conform is simply crushed.

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