If a rare resource becomes common, its value drops accordingly...
There was a time Aluminium was considered precious, they they were able to industrialize its production...
Time to queue up the Twilight Zone episode where the guys stole a bunch of gold, put themselves into suspended animation, only to wake up years later and discover that science had figured out how to synthesize it.
It wasn't just valuable enough to be considered a precious metal, it was priced at twice as much as gold.