Project Cobalt requests incentive for asteroid mining

DENVER — While mining has always been big in Colorado, Project Cobalt could take the lucrative process to a whole new altitude. The undisclosed company behind an asteroid mining project has requested more than $1 million in the form of a Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit to employ 150 people in the Denver area.

The $1.28 million requested would be distributed over the course of eight years, assuming all 150 jobs are created, and if the company is able to raise $16 million (15 million euros) prior to the end of 2022. The jobs created are expected to mostly be data and marketing roles paying around $110,000 per year.

The company behind Project Cobalt, which requested to remain unnamed in documents filed with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, is exploring moving from the Netherlands to friendlier regulatory environments in the United States, the United Kingdom or Luxembourg.

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The project would explore mining near-Earth asteroids for valuable minerals. The company behind Project Cobalt is advertising asteroid mining as sustainable and carbon-neutral, when compared to traditional mining.

Colorado has strong connections to the aerospace industry, being home to several key companies such as Ball Aerospace and petitioning to host the headquarters for the United States Space Force.