Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. is an American company engaged in deep-ocean exploration with a focus on the exploration, development and validation of subsea mineral resources. Starting out as a shipwreck pioneer, Odyssey has discovered some of the most famous deep-ocean shipwrecks in history including the SS Republic, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, HMS Victory, SS Gairsoppa and SS Ancona. Their work has been featured on the Discovery Channel, PBS and National Geographic.
Mineral exploration
In 2009, Odyssey announced it acquired a minority interest in SMM Project LLC., a company with licenses to explore in four different areas in the South Pacific. This marked the beginning of Odyssey’s transition into a mineral exploration company.
Odyssey later executed a charter agreement with Chatham Rock Phosphate to undertake site investigation work for its offshore permit area on the Chatham Rise. Odyssey also owns a minority ownership stake in Neptune Minerals, a company focused on discovering and commercializing high-value mineral deposits from the ocean floor.
In March 2013, Odyssey disclosed an ownership interest in Oceanica Resources, S. de R.L., and Exploraciones Oceanicas, S. de R.L. de C.V. (“ExO”), a subsidiary of Oceanica. ExO conducts mineral exploration and controls exclusive permits in an area in Mexican waters that contains a large amount of phosphate mineralized material. According to its latest financial report, Odyssey Marine Exploration controls ExO through the company's majority ownership stake in Oceanica. Odyssey performed all of the exploration to find and validate the mineralized phosphate deposit and is managing the environmental studies, including an NI 43-101 report in 2014, and environmental permit application process with ExO. The current resource assessment defines the deposit as containing 588.3 million tonnes of phosphate ore with an average in situ P2O5 of 18.1%, overburden of 1.14 meters and ore thickness of 2.80 meters. This makes it one of the largest phosphate deposits to be discovered in the world.
In July 2019, Odyssey acquired a nearly 80% ownership interest in Bismarck Mining Corporation, a company that owns an exploration license for 320 square kilometers containing at least five exploration targets in two different mineralization types (seamount-related epithermal and modern placer gold). The license area is adjacent to Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea where one of the world’s largest known terrestrial gold deposits is currently being mined and processed by Newcrest Mining.
In 2020, Odyssey announced it was a member of the CIC Consortium providing marine services to the project. The company holds a 16% stake in CIC. On February 23, 2022, CIC was awarded a five-year exploration license by the Cook Islands’ Seabed Mineral Authority (SBMA). Environmental research expedition details are being finalized and operations are expected to begin within the second quarter of 2022.
On June 4, 2023, Odyssey entered into a purchase agreement to acquire a 13% interest in Ocean Minerals LLC (OML) in exchange for a contribution by Odyssey of its interest in a 6,000-meter remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and cash contributions of up to $10 million in a series of transactions over the next year. The purchase agreement allows Odyssey to acquire a total of up to 40% of OML over the next 18 months at Odyssey’s discretion. Moana Minerals Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of OML, holds a five-year exploration license from the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) granted in 2022 to explore polymetallic nodules within the Cook Islands’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
According to the company’s website, they have various additional projects in development for other mineral deposits in various jurisdictions around the world.
History
Odyssey was founded in 1994 by shipwreck exploration pioneers Greg Stemm and John Morris.
Between 1998 and 2001, Odyssey Marine Exploration searched for HMS Sussex and stated that it believed it had located the shipwreck off Gibraltar at a depth of 821 metres. The English ship sank in a storm in 1694 during the War of the Grand Alliance as it was transporting 10 tons of gold coins to buy the allegiance of the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II, against France.