Disputes in Space: The asteroid gold rush - space mining and its future

In this episode of Disputes in Space, A&O Shearman partner Andrew Denny is joined by Jenn Lawrence of Monckton Chambers and Marie Stoyanov, A&O Shearman’s Global Head of Arbitration, to explore why space mining is poised to become a major source of future disputes. 

As launch costs fall and technology improves, commercial operators are looking ahead to a world where metals, rare minerals, and even water are extracted from asteroids and the lunar surface and used to fuel deeper exploration, power in orbit manufacturing, and support permanent infrastructure in space, as well as for projects on Earth. In the coming decades, we’re likely to see a rapid acceleration: prospecting missions, pilot extraction projects, and the emergence of sophisticated supply chains built entirely beyond Earth.   

While our commercial ambitions have raced forward, our legal frameworks have not. The Outer Space Treaty was drafted in the 1960s, long before private operators were formulating plans for space mining. National laws and the Artemis Accords offer partial answers to some questions, but the global regulatory landscape remains fragmented and ill equipped to deal with overlapping claims, competing rights, or conflicts concerning extraction in space. The result is an environment primed for complex, multi layered disputes. 

The discussion covers:

• What the commercial landscape for space resources is expected to look like in the next 10–15 years
• How gaps and ambiguities in the Outer Space Treaty fuel competing interpretations regarding resource rights
• The growing tension between national legislation and international obligations
• Why future disputes may span state to state claims, contractual arbitration, tort based actions and even investor–state cases
• What frameworks (such as the Hague “building blocks”) might shape the long term development of space mining governance 

If your work touches the future space economy—whether exploration, infrastructure, investment, or commercial operations— this episode offers clarity on where the earliest legal flashpoints in space mining are likely to emerge, and what businesses will need to navigate as humanity’s commercial activities move deeper into the solar system.

Disputes in Space is a podcast series from A&O Shearman’s Future Disputes group, exploring the disputes risks emerging from the rapid commercialization of space. Featuring A&O Shearman lawyers and external experts, the series examines collisions, spectrum interference, and space mining—and the legal, regulatory, and evidentiary challenges shaping the future space economy.