OD6 raises $6.9M for US fluorspar push
Our US critical minerals Investment OD6 Metals (ASX: OD6) just raised ~A$6.9M at 9.5c per share to accelerate its US fluorspar strategy.
The placement is being done as a clean single tranche and was run by three joint lead managers - GBA Capital, Petra Capital and Euroz Hartleys.
Three brokers being keen to get in on the book tells us there was some good institutional interest to get on board.
Today OD6 also flagged support from “global institutional investors, family offices” (source), so good to see some interest from higher up as these can tend to be longer term holders.
We participated in this placement.
Most of the funds are earmarked for OD6's Quinn fluorspar project in Nevada which is the reason we Invested in OD6.
OD6 now sees itself fully funded for the upcoming planned works at the US fluorspar project:
- A maiden drilling and bulk sampling program (once the US Forest Service approval comes through),
- Met testwork,
- Ongoing permitting,
- With all of this to build towards a maiden JORC resource estimate.
There was also a line in the announcement which caught our eye “Evaluation and potential acquisition of additional fluorspar and critical minerals projects”.
So perhaps OD6 has been eying off something whether that be more fluorspar in the area or something else related to the critical minerals theme.
There are some smaller works also planned across OD6's WA rare earths project (met testing) and its copper project in NSW, however the fluorspar USA asset remains the key focus).
OD6 is also proposing a name change to Adaven Limited (which is "Nevada" spelt backwards), and the ASX ticker expected to move from "OD6" to "ADA".
Here is a look at the proposed new logo:
(source)
With this rebrand and name change, it looks like OD6 is going all-in on its US critical minerals strategy (which we clearly like).
This is all pending shareholder approval which should occur in the coming weeks.
So we wait to see if the future works being done on the other projects are to keep them active or to put them in a better position to potentially move them on and obtain more capital to progress the fluorspar.
Management is also seeking shareholder approval for director options priced at 15c and 20c, comfortably above where OD6 last traded (11c) and well above the 9.5c raise price, with the goal to better “align director remuneration with sustained shareholder value creation”.
OD6’s drill targets
OD6 has already completed comprehensive surface exploration, revealing multiple zones of mineralisation outcropping at surface, which could be linked underground.
We have written about the “iceberg” theory before - what may from the surface look like a few isolated outcrops, could be linked underground:
(source)
OD6 is planning to drill test a new zone AND both of the linking corridors:
(source)
What is fluorspar and why it matters
Fluorspar is one of the more niche critical minerals that hasn’t quite received any mainstream attention YET.
However in 2024, fluorspar was listed as one of the nine materials with the highest shortfall risk for the US military in a major conflict scenario. (source)
(like we are in now)
Two explicit signals of fluorspar demand from US agencies have come from:
- The Department of War, through the Ares’ US$250M supply contract, (source) and;
- The US Defence Logistics Agency (DLA) - when it included fluorspar on its list of critical minerals that are a priority for sourcing in January this year. (source)
On the 20th of July, President Trump signed an Executive Order to force defence contractors to explore all avenues before buying critical minerals from China. (Here is the full EO)
And set a deadline for “exploring all avenues” of 1st January 2027.
We think that the 1st of January 2027 deadline (and the threat of lost contracts) will mean capital starts getting deployed for any projects that have any realistic pathway to producing a critical mineral in the US.
We covered the drill permits being lodged here: OD6 lodges drill permits and begins FAST-41 engagement for its Nevada fluorspar project.
What's next for OD6?
🔄 Drill permit application
A few weeks ago OD6 officially submitted the paperwork that, once approved, will allow it to do the first modern drilling (and bulk sampling) at the project since the 1950s.
The “Plan of Operations” is for up to 139 drill pad locations across priority target areas:
(source)
Milestones:
- ✅ Plan of Operations submitted to the US Forest Service
- 🔄 Plan of operations approved
- 🔲 Drill program confirmed and drilling contractor secured
- 🔲 Drill program commenced
🔄 Target generation for US fluorspar project
We want to see OD6 sample 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
- ✅ Digitisation of scanned paper maps and cross-sections into a 3D geological model
- ✅ Soil/channel sampling
- 🔲 Geophysics
- ✅ Drill targets generated
