Hmm. I like the ideas so far. Also, the PCs pet count should be developing an independent streak.
Let's say that crazy old prospector comes back from his latest foray into the desert with a lifter full of lanthanum(or was it tantalum?). Now Delgado and Sternmetall are taking an interest in your formerly worthless little dustball, and the count, the mobster, and your PCs are suddenly pawns in the hands of a corporate power-struggle. Both companies have operatives just as bright as the PCs, but with much larger expense accounts. The best idea for the PCs is to side with one of the megacorps; of course then they have the other corp and the mobster, probably working with their "tame" count, trying to take them down. The corp they side with may let them skim some valuta off the top, but if they want to use any corp resources to maintain their status they'll have to play the office politics game. Let's not forget about the imperial inquisitor who suddenly sees a reason to look into the legitimacy of your PCs pet count.
Finally, to make things a little less simple and boring, perhaps another group of uranium prospectors found a little cache of Ancient artifacts. The only functional artifact was a container filled with nanassemblers programmed to disassemble the surface of Gulchimer and create a garden planet. They've been absorbing cosmic rays for a long time so they aren't too fast or efficient, fortunately. Unfortunately, our prospectors broke open the container, hoping to find something valuable inside. The world isn't doomed... yet... but the miners all die about a week after they return to the settlement. And make contact with just about everybody. Now your PCs own a plague-world. Yay.
That last idea has the makings of a Halloween scenario I'm working on. All those human brains might prove useful to the terraformers...