OD6 produces low impurity fluorspar from project in Nevada, USA.
Our US critical minerals Investment OD6 Metals (ASX: OD6) just released multi-element assay results from its Fluorspar Project in Nevada.A
Which showed its fluorspar has “some of the world's lowest impurities” - which technically de-risks the project in a big way.
Combined with OD6’s recent announcement - showing its material can be processed into 97.83% grade “Acid-spar”..
Acidspar = >97% fluorspar (CaF₂) - the high-value product used in hydrofluoric acid, AI semiconductor chip etching, batteries, nuclear fuel and defence.
This is the product the US government is needing to stockpile and has given a contract for.
OD6 has now shown that the material also has low impurities meaning its product’s spec could be exactly what any buyers are looking for.
(low impurity, high grade makes processing the material into a finished product easier)
OD6’s project produced fluorspar back in the 1950s (~26,000t @ 44.9% fluorite) from a small open pit on the side of a hill.
Since then the project hasn’t seen any modern exploration (including drilling).
OD6 has now mapped an ~8km mineralised corridor across three fluorspar systems (that it thinks could be part of one bigger system - remember our ice berg analogy):
(source)
Now we wait to see OD6 drill the project and prove out the system has size/scale (the ultimate win being those three target areas being connected to one another).
More on today’s announcement - OD6 could have the cleanest fluorspar in the world
The thing that makes fluorspar hard to process isn't usually the fluorspar, it's everything that comes with it.
Most fluorspar deposits sit in epithermal systems that drag along lead, arsenic, sulphur and even uranium, which all need to be removed with expensive, complicated processing circuits before it can be sold.
OD6's raw ore from the results released today are impressively free of all that baggage.
Check out all of those passes, with the yellow sections expected to pass with followup initial processing:
(source)
The impurities are low enough that the raw material passes the metspar specification straight out of the ground, and clears some acidspar threshold before any upgrading at all.
To put that in context, OD6 compared its results to the world's major producing deposits:
- Las Cuevas (Mexico) - the world's largest fluorite producer - runs concentrate at ~300ppm arsenic.
- Silius (Italy) - Europe's largest - carries reserves grading 3.2% lead (32,000ppm), needing a whole separate processing circuit.
- Lost Sheep (Utah) - in a fluorspar-uranium province - has been reported at up to 0.33% uranium (3,300ppm).
By comparison, Horseshoe's raw ore averages just ~3.75ppm lead, ~23ppm arsenic and <10ppm uranium, much lower than these existing operations.
Because the ore is so clean, OD6 thinks Horseshoe (already >70% CaF₂ on average) could be sold as Direct Shipping Ore for metspar with minimal processing.
While simple ore-sorting and flotation rather than a complex contaminant-removal circuit - is all that should be needed to lift it to >97% acidspar.
And acidspar (the higher grade fluorspar product) is one of the critical minerals that the US is desperately scrambling to stockpile.
The US imports 100% of its fluorspar (China controls ~60% of global supply), fluorspar has been on the US critical minerals list since 2018, and it's one of the materials in Trump's US$12BN "Project Vault" stockpile initiative.
A clean, low-impurity, in-US acid-grade feed is precisely what those programs are built to secure - so if the upgrade testwork is positive, Quinn’s ore should comfortably meet the kind of specs a US national-defence stockpile would want.
Why we're Invested in OD6
We Invested in OD6 because it was the first ASX-listed small cap with a pure-play fluorspar asset inside US borders AND because we think there is a window of opportunity to bring a fluorspar project into production in the US with support from funding out of the US.
Like the funding support that small cap ARES mining received (up to US$250M from the Pentagon).
(source)
The only reason Ares received that funding was because it's the only fully-permitted, ready-to-restart fluorspar mine in the United States.
Ares' project in Utah is currently designated as the sole domestic supplier of acid-grade fluorspar to the US government. (source)
The interesting part is the way the contract is structured. The Department of War orders the product as Ares delivers it.
No acidspar produced = no payment.
We think that now OD6 with its metwork results and historical drilling data has enough data already to put itself in the conversation as an alternative domestic supplier of fluorspar…
AND the dream scenario for us as OD6 investors would be the Department of War issuing a similar contract to OD6.
It’s hard to see the DoW put all its eggs in one basket (which is one small Canadian listed company) for the supply of a critical mineral that it is 100% reliant on imports for.
In an announcement last month, OD6’s Managing Director commented on US engagement confirming that OD6 had enough data that “could enable application to the White House for FAST-41 status” on its project:
(source)
FAST-41 is a special accelerated USA permitting and development framework for projects considered “critical” and essential for US national security. (more on Fast-41 status here)
What we want to see next from OD6
🔄 Target generation for US fluorspar project
We want to see OD6 samples in and around the old workings on its project, run some geophysics and generate high priority drill targets ahead of its maiden drilling program.
Milestones:
- ✅ Rock chips
- ✅ Channel sampling
- ✅ Historic drill results
- 🔄 Metallurgical testwork showing OD6’s material can be processed to acid-spar grades.
- 🔄 NEW: Digitisation of scanned paper maps and cross-sections into a 3D geological model
- 🔄 Soil/channel sampling
- 🔲 Geophysics
- 🔲 Drill targets generated
🔄 Strategic / Government Engagement for fluorspar in the US
- 🔄 Fast-track permitting
- 🔲 Engage with US Department of War, Department of Energy, or DLA regarding domestic fluorspar supply
- 🔲 Explore strategic partnerships or offtake discussions
