Google founder, filmmaker planning to mine asteroids?

A cryptic news release issued last week suggested a blockbuster team of investors — including Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page and Canadian filmmaker James Cameron — are set to back a space-exploration venture that could have plans to mine asteroids.

The release contained few details of the team’s plans but suggested more would be revealed this morning during a news conference at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

“The company will overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP,” the release said, adding that the startup would “create a new industry and new definition of ‘natural resources.’”

Plans for the company, to be called Planetary Resources Inc., will be unveiled by space entrepreneurs Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson along with NASA scientists and astronauts Chris Lewicki and Tom Jones, the release said.

In addition to Page and the exploration-minded Cameron, investors and advisers in the company include Google chairman Eric Schmidt, former Microsoft Corp. chief software architect Charles Simonyi and Ross Perot Jr., son of the well-known U.S. businessman.

The release, apparently circulated last Wednesday, got many speculating on what the company’s purpose would be. MIT’S Technology Review and Discover Magazine’s Bad As- tronomy blog both suggested it could be asteroid mining.

Reports from The Wall Street Journal and Forbes on Friday picked up on this idea and hypothesized the startup could be intended to travel to asteroids and mine them for precious metals or rare-earth minerals used in electronics.