Luxembourg has entered a 25 million Euro investment and corporation agreement with US asteroid mining company Planetary Resources to explore resources on near-Earth asteroids.
The deal is part of Luxembourg’s mission to become a global space mining hub.
The country’s government will invest 12 million euros, with the rest coming from its Société Nationale de Crédit et d’Investissement bank, International Business Times reports, with Planetary Resources using the funds to launch the world’s first commercial asteroid prospecting mission by 2020.
Luxembourg’s deputy prime minister and minister of the economy, Étienne Schneider, said the partnership “lays the ground of the principles of our cooperation in the years to come, while demonstrating the government’s strong commitment to support the national space sector by attracting innovative activities in space resource utilisation and other related areas.”
Earlier this year Luxembourg’s government provided 200 million Euros in funding and established new laws to make it the first country in Europe to set out legal guidelines for asteroid mining.