Rinehart’s $1B SpaceX bet targets mining beyond Earth

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has bought a major stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX), betting the world’s most valuable space company could drive future demand for critical minerals and infrastructure beyond Earth.

Hancock Prospecting said Monday it received an allocation of SpaceX shares in the company’s record initial public offering last week, though it did not disclose the size of the stake. The Australian Financial Review reported the investment was worth at least A$1.4 billion (C$103 billion). SpaceX, legally Space Exploration Technologies Corp., raised $75 billion (C$105 billion) in the IPO and closed its first trading day up 19%.

“This is a significant investment for Hancock,” Rinehart said in a statement. SpaceX is “operating in sectors that are crucial and with long-term potential.”

The investment tightens the link between mining and space as governments and private companies study how critical minerals, water and energy could support work beyond Earth. Hancock has built one of the largest critical minerals portfolios outside China, including stakes in Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYC) and MP Materials (NYSE: MP), positioning the company to benefit if space development becomes a real source of demand.

The stake would rank among Rinehart’s largest holdings outside Hancock’s core iron ore operations in Western Australia. The billionaire has expanded aggressively into rare earths and other strategic minerals in recent years.

“We also see the possibility of mutually beneficial arrangements between SpaceX and Hancock Prospecting’s significant critical minerals investments,” Hancock Prospecting CEO Garry Korte said in the statement. “We look forward to the potential of working with the SpaceX team on its exciting journey.”

Moon economics

Mining will need to push into harsher environments, from the Arctic and deep oceans to, eventually, the Moon and asteroids, some industry experts say. NASA’s Artemis program aims to set up pilot processing facilities for lunar resources by 2032, first targeting water, energy and lunar soil before moving toward metals and minerals.

NASA last week unveiled the crew of Artemis III and gave an upbeat update on the mission, but left open whether it can launch next year.

Much of the mission’s success depends on SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which are developing lunar landers to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface. Artemis III must first prove key manoeuvres with versions of those spacecraft closer to Earth.

Lunar water ranks among the most valuable early resources because it can be split into oxygen and hydrogen for life support and rocket fuel. That shifts early space mining economics away from metals and toward infrastructure for long-duration missions.

Asteroids and lunar deposits may hold nickel, iron and platinum group metals, but extracting them remains a long shot. Even with lower launch costs, miners would still need to find targets, reach them, extract material and process it in space or bring it back to Earth at a profit.

Long road

Private companies are still pushing ahead. AstroForge recently raised $40 million for a mission to meet a metallic near-Earth asteroid, with later plans to extract and refine materials. The company also received the first commercial licence from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to operate in deep space, setting an early regulatory marker for private missions beyond Earth orbit.

The economics remain daunting. Using NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission as a guide, analysts estimate iridium prices would need to rise about 140,000 times for a similar asteroid-mining venture to break even, showing how far the industry remains from commercial returns.

The legal ground is just as uncertain. The Outer Space Treaty bars countries from claiming sovereignty over celestial bodies, while ownership rights to extracted resources remain contested. China and Russia have not joined the U.S.-led Artemis Accords, and the 1979 Moon Agreement lacks support from major space powers, leaving unresolved who will govern future lunar and asteroid resources.