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Industry witnesses urge Congress to back U.S. space-mining efforts as complement to domestic mining
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Summary
Witnesses at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing argued that technological progress and launch-cost reductions make asteroid and lunar mining increasingly feasible, and they urged Congress to create finance mechanisms, streamline access to NASA systems, and consider loan guarantees or price floors to help nascent firms scale.
WASHINGTON — The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations heard testimony from industry and academic witnesses who said the United States should treat space mining as a strategic complement to domestic mineral development and should consider targeted federal support to accelerate the sector.
Professor Michael Cabrera, director of the School of Mining and Mineral Resources at the University of Arizona, said the technologies tested by recent sample-return missions show that extracting materials from small bodies is technically plausible even if not yet economic. "Analysis of asteroid Bennu samples found cobalt, nickel, platinum, iridium, and other metals at an extrapolated value of over $500,000,000,000," Cabrera said, noting also that "recovering just 121 grams of material cost roughly $1,200,000,000," underscoring current cost challenges.
Private companies offered roadmaps for reducing those costs. Steve Place, senior policy advisor for AstroForge, said his company will launch a mission the next day to confirm an asteroid's metallic makeup and outlined a multi-step plan to mine, refine and return high-value metals. "Future generations will look back on this moment as an inflection point where America established its mineral independence," Place told the subcommittee, urging Congress to consider five actions including creation of a space resource consortium, underwriting a price floor or offtaker-of-last-resort arrangements, expanding Department of Energy loan programs to cover space-based critical-mineral projects, greater NASA-commercial collaboration, and easier commercial access to NASA's Deep Space Network.
StarPath, represented by its CEO Mr. Shroff, framed in-space propellant production as the linchpin for affordable, repeatable missions to the Moon and Mars. Shroff said reusable launch systems and in-space refueling could cut mission costs by multiple orders of magnitude and enable commercial business models for propellant and resource production. He told members StarPath aims to have its first propellant production capability staged on the Moon by the end of 2026 if launch timelines remain on track.
Witnesses repeatedly contrasted slower, costly timelines and litigation exposure for terrestrial mines with faster private-sector pace in space. Cabrera and others called for regulatory modernization on Earth—particularly reforms to federal permitting and efforts to reduce litigation that they said delay domestic projects for years—while pursuing parallel investments in space technologies.
During questioning members pressed witnesses on near-term technical demonstrations and commercial pathways. Place and Shroff described phased approaches of remote prospecting, in-situ refining and incremental scaling; Place said subsequent missions would land on asteroids to verify ore concentrations and that the company plans a production-scale fleet of small autonomous spacecraft. Cabrera emphasized that terrestrial mining must continue to supply the majority of critical minerals during any transition, and that innovations in automation, remote operations and water management will be valuable both on Earth and in space.
The hearing produced no legislative action; witnesses committed to provide further technical and budgetary detail in follow-up submissions to the committee.
Looking ahead, companies cited near-term milestones: AstroForge's confirmation flight scheduled in testimony for "tomorrow at 07:15 p.m. Eastern," and StarPath's target to establish an initial lunar propellant operation by late 2026.
