Today I learned that for the last year US individuals and companies can legally mine, keep and use materials from the moon and asteroids. There are already companies that exist for space mining, including Planetary Resources which has been gotten financial backing to research and implement this. Some of this was spurred by an asteroid with a platinum core worth trillions passing near our planet.
Prior to the Space Act of 2015 'outer space' was treated like international waters in which no single country, company or individual could lay claim to property, but rather was a shared Earth resource. I was shocked that I hadn't heard more about this over the last year, especially since the law only applied to America and not the rest of the world.
Image Sources:
Asteroid Mining