Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. Stock

Good day, and welcome to the IAccess Alpha Virtual Best Ideas Spring Investment Conference 2026. Our next presenting company is Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc.

[Operator Instructions]

I'd now like to turn the floor over to today's host, Mr. Mark Gordon, Chairman and CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration. Sir, please go ahead.

Well, thank you, Ali, and a real pleasure to be here presenting today at the IAccess Alpha Virtual Best Ideas Conference. Happy that we were considered for this opportunity as one of the best investment ideas this spring. So hopefully, I'll fulfill the expectations of our host here. Briefly, standard disclaimers, forward-looking information disclaimer apply to the information I'll be presenting here and then just an additional cautionary note, we'll be talking about some estimated resource valuations. So just pay close attention to the cautionary note here and then embedded in the slides where we're talking about value. So I'm going to start the opposite of, at least how I've presented, Odyssey as an investment opportunity in the past.

And I want to start with the macro environment because the macro environment is really driving what makes investment in the seabed mineral space so attractive right now. So if we start at the highest level, and I'm sure all of us have watched in the news, this current administration's focus on where are we going to get the critical minerals that are necessary to power our economy and our defense systems. So that's the high level of where we're starting. And here are some numbers to give you a sense of just how critical the situation is. Essentially the U.S. lacks a secure end-to-end domestic supply for the critical minerals we need, and that's leaving us exposed.

Again, at the industrial level as well as the defense and agricultural levels, you look at minerals like titanium and manganese, where we're 100% reliant on imported. And then when we look at rare earths, 70% to 80% are coming from outside the U.S. with China having a real death grip, if you will, and we've seen some of the threats that have been leveled lately in tariff back and forth with China. But net-net, this administration is really focused on finding the answers to how we're going to solve this problem. I can tell you I spent 27 years of my adult life in D.C., and I have never seen more concentrated action on a particular strategic issue that I'm seeing right now in the past year under the current administration. So this slide has a lot of text on it.

Let me just walk you through the key points here. As you look at the 4 bullet points, the lower left corner, the U.S. critical minerals ministerial, what that was, was a meeting that was just conducted in the past 30 days, first week of February in Washington, D.C., where we had 50 allied nations come meet with our government, hosted by Secretary Rubio, Vice President, Vance was involved. So there was a serious commitment from our government and a serious commitment from 50 nations who traveled to talk specifically about how we get an allied trading block to make sure all of us have the critical minerals we're going to need.

Most important to Odyssey's story, which I'll come to in a minute, is our major projects right now are in Mexico and in the Cook Islands. So if you look at the upper left bullet point, Mexico entered into an agreement coming out of this ministerial conference with the U.S. to coordinate trade policy and regulatory alignment to serve both Mexico and the U.S. Also the Cook Islands, the lower right bullet point here also entered into an enhanced agreement. There was already an agreement where Trump's Top White House Adviser on Minerals, David Copley actually traveled to the Cook Islands earlier -- well, maybe about 6 months ago and signed an initial agreement.

That agreement got enhanced coming out of this ministerial. I mentioned those because again, Odyssey has projects in both of those jurisdictions that would benefit from good alignment between our government and those governments. And then finally, the upper right. The other important thing to demonstrate and underline how serious the U.S. government's commitment is, is something that was just also announced just in the past couple of weeks, Project Vault. You could get more information on that online, but it's over $12 billion of public-private funding to help supply -- stabilize the supply chain. And the good news for Odyssey and Odyssey investors is that many of the minerals we're working on in these different projects I just described, are on the U.S. government's critical mineral list. So they're going to get special attention.

If you look -- starting to zoom down now and look at Odyssey as an investment opportunity, a couple of comments I'll make here. One, right now, there's only 2 publicly traded -- publicly traded in the U.S. anyway, companies, TMC and Odyssey Marine exploration that offer investors an opportunity to invest in this space that's accelerating in terms of its maturation. The difference between maybe the TMC and us. And by the way, we're big fans of TMC, we're building this industry together. We're the only companies that I know of that have more than a decade of experience in sea floor mineral project management and execution. There are a bunch of new players coming online now. But the difference between us is we have a multifaceted program. What do I mean by that? We're targeting different commodities across different exclusive economic zones with different sovereign partners that have control of their waters.

The other thing that makes, obviously, I think, very unique is we have -- we bring 3 decades of ocean exploration experience. We've been, for over 15 years, focused on seafloor minerals, but 15 years prior to that, we've been working on exploration programs down to water depths of 6,000 meters, which equips us well for the opportunity on seafloor minerals.

This diverse portfolio, I just referenced, our newest project in the U.S. We have a heavy mineral sands project that we just made application for with the Bureau of Energy Management, who regulates awarding leases in U.S. outer continental shelf waters. And the minerals here, titanium, zirconium and rare earth elements are going to be essential for defense systems. These are all top of that list we were talking about earlier where we're reliant heavily on import from foreign nations, some of which aren't as friendly as others.

So this is an exciting new project, but very early stage. In the Cook Islands, Odyssey has investments in 2 out of the 3 license holders there. Here, we're targeting polymetallic nodules. These are about the size of a golf ball lying on the seafloor, but these rocks contain a variety of minerals, most notably cobalt, manganese and nickel and the cobalt and nickel, especially, are going to be important for battery and energy storage, a big focus for the world right now as electrification gains greater and greater foothold across all nations right now.

So these projects are both licensed for exploration. Exploration programs have been ongoing for a number of years right now. And Odyssey actually has had a -- the licenses only date back 3 or 4 years, but Odyssey has been working with the Cook Islands government for well over a decade now as they were formulating their regulatory framework for these projects to proceed. So we have a long-standing relationship with the regulators there.

Mexico is a different mineral set. Again, I mentioned our diversification. This is phosphate, critical for fertilizer. It's one of the only ingredients of fertilizer that cannot be lab-created, has to be found in nature. And right now, the U.S. is a significant producer of that, but Morocco, Russia and China are the largest world producers. So another important project for the U.S. and for Mexico, who's having to import much of their raw phosphate right now in addition to what they're producing domestically.

We've had some issues here. We've gone through some litigation challenges that are getting resolved now. Recently, our mining concessions were restored. And we are working with a fabulous Mexican business partner that's very well regarded, businessman, multi-generation respected business family, very connected to the government in that they are large agri food businesses that this company runs. And as such, he finds himself as an adviser to government on ag and food issues. Again, exactly what this project is targeting. So what you're seeing here is projects either in the U.S. or with U.S. aligned partners, this -- a portfolio that's targeting shortages of critical minerals. The thing to look ahead as for investors is that it's an interesting story because we'll have multiple catalysts as each of these projects advance up the value curve as we develop them.

So you can expect periodic news flow. And oftentimes, those will serve as catalysts to have the market revalue our equity in a positive way. And I would say the other thing is we'll see in a minute, I'm going to get into some numbers, it's very -- there's an asymmetric upside here where the success of any single asset in our portfolio is a multiple to Odyssey's current market capitalization. You'll probably hear me say that again because I think that's what is the opportunity right now for anyone new to the Odyssey story.

Okay. So again, drilling down on Odyssey, what makes us fit for purpose and why I think we're well positioned to take advantage of this wave of activity I described at the outset is we do take this government-first approach. I mentioned having a relationship with the Cook Islands for more than a decade, which was many years before an exploration license was first granted and that this speaks to that approach.

We've talked about our diversified portfolio in multiple jurisdictions. That gives us both commodity risk diversification and geopolitical risk diversification. The other really important thing from our 3 decades of working in the ocean exploration space in the past 1.5 decades, working specifically on seafloor minerals is we've developed some proprietary tools. One is something that we call our Global Prospectivity System, which our science teams have evaluated now something like 150 exclusive economic zones around the world to determine where are the best mineral opportunities and they're also using a 48-point scale to rate these opportunities. So what it boils down to is are there going to be rich mineral deposits and is there a rule of law or regulatory framework that will allow us to develop these investments with peace of mind that will continue to own them once we prove their valuable assets.

The other thing we've developed with our science team is advanced modeling technology where we can do a lot of desk-based research. The expensive part of our work is when we put ships on the water. It's millions of dollars a month when we had big ships working out there. So the more work we can do before we leave the dock to determine where the best mineral deposit is and where those concentrations will be help narrow our search and increase our efficiency in terms of our spend on the water.

In fact, several of our geologists have been featured just in the past couple of months at major international conferences speaking about some of this technology that we've developed. So we're really thought leaders, I think, in this aspect of our business. We have a great credential team, again, 3 decades of experience and I'm as excited about our global partner network. We have world-class partners. I'll give you a specific example. Our Mexico project will involve dredging. Our long-term partner for that project is Royal Boskalis, one of the largest dredging companies in the world who's operated a wholly owned subsidiary in Mexico for over 25 years. That's an example of one of our partners. And then finally, look, this alignment with U.S. critical mineral priorities we're just in the right place at the right time at this moment with what we've built here.

So let's talk a little bit about the projects in terms of value and how that might ultimately result in enhanced valuation for Odyssey Marine exploration at a market level. First project is the Mexico project, that's PHOSAGMEX, that's phosphate. Our internal NPV value here, again, please read the disclaimers at the bottom of the screen, is, we believe, conservative. But what we've done. So that's the center column, the NPV values for these projects.

And then what we've done is just discounted at 50% in the first column to set a range of values. The third column indicates Odyssey's ownership. So we own 35% of that project right now. And so Odyssey's value would range from about $200 million to $440 million based on that level of ownership and the net present value range we've established here.

The next 2 projects are the Cook Island projects, OML. Actually, the $4.7 billion NPV came from OML. They've published this. It's based on a JORC-compliant report. Any of you that are new to mining, there are 2 mining standards, JORC, which is the Australian mining standard for valuing a resource and the 43-101, which is the Canadian standard. So one or the other are the 2 world standards for valuing a mining project, what the resource value will be. Theirs has delivered a $4.7 billion NPV. Odyssey owns 7% of that. So you see a range of values of $165 million to $329 million for that investment.

Now with CIC, CIC has not provided the number. We've used OML's number. Let me explain why. CIC's mining area is directly adjacent to OML. So the mineralogy is identical. But CIC has an area that's about 6x to 8x the size, a license area is 6 to 8x the size of OML. In that case -- in the case of CIC, we currently own 14% -- just over 14% of CIC, setting up a range of Odyssey's investment value being between $330 million and $670 million. So you run it out and just across these 3 projects, $700 million to $1.4 billion.

Now I mentioned earlier, our global prospectivity, our proprietary tool. So we have many more projects in early stage of development, which I haven't even spoken about today. The BOEM project is so early stage that we're not valuing it. We tend to be very conservative in our valuation of projects. So you're not seeing -- we're not reporting any value, even projecting a value at this point for that project. And then we've got a pipeline of projects, we can sort of just rinse, wash and repeat, if you will, and bring projects out of the pipeline as we have the resources to do so. So expect to hear more about that. And with that said, that is my final slide. So I think we are going to have some time for Q&A. And let's see.

Let me go to the Q&A section. Sorry, I'm new to the platform here. Okay. Here's -- I'll just sort of go in order here.

Some investors may still view Ocean Minerals as a longer-term opportunity. However, in the U.S., the government appears to be moving from policy intent toward tangible action by prioritizing offshore mineral leasing and critical mineral security. Can you discuss how this acceleration is creating real near-term opportunities for companies like Odyssey?

That's a great question, some of which I've touched on, but let me see if I can do a job of neatly answering this. There's so many different dimensions. I totally agree, the shift from policy to execution is happening at an amazing pace, good, an amazingly good pace. I mentioned earlier, I spent 27 years of adult life in D.C. prior to coming down to Tampa, Florida to join the Odyssey team. And I've never seen this level of activity coordinated across multiple government agencies from Department of War to Department of Interior to Department of State to Department of Commerce, and there seems to be really good alignment. So yes, there's no question that U.S. policy discussions are increasingly focused on implementation and readiness and particularly around offshore minerals, not just critical minerals from any source.

So obviously, terrestrial is going to remain an important source, but the idea that the current administration sees offshore minerals as a viable addition to the supply chain is really good for our business. The other thing, I think, in this shift from policy to execution. Exploration and development timelines are long. So the near-term policy acceleration benefits companies like Odyssey that have already done the foundational work and are positioned now to take advantage of the partnerships that our government is signing through the ministerial as well as Project Vault, where there will be significant funding available to advance these projects.

Another component here is the policy and permitting focus. Again, the government seems to be really focused on streamlining these processes. And that just reflects the urgency of securing future supply into my earlier comment, going faster is important because this is a long process to get a project from identifying the resource to where it's in production, delivering the minerals to the beach. So a big fan of that. And the other thing that I think that's the most important that's making me max bullish right now is that there's no longer a discussion about weather offshore minerals will matter, it's how and when and how can they be responsibly developed. That's the shift I see in the dialogue with government.

We're very actively engaged in Washington, I and other members of the Odyssey team are in Washington now every few weeks in meetings across all of these different agencies I've mentioned, including at the White House. So what we want to make sure is that the government understands how we align with their priorities so that we get the appropriate level of focus and attention.

And I could just tell you those meetings have all gone tremendously well. Look, I think the billions of dollars now that are proposed in federal funding underscores how serious our government is in terms of building this domestic critical mineral supply chain. Again, something really good for companies like Odyssey that have spent 15 years preparing for this moment.

And then Odyssey does have an early -- I guess, a follow-on related comment is we do have the early mover positioning. To date, it hasn't been rewarded, but my sense is it's about to be. More than a decade now, we've been deliberately building this pipeline of projects that align with this current -- what was future policy momentum and it's now current policy momentum. So we're well positioned to take advantage of that.

I think the final thing I'll say is on this is the U.S. adds a really interesting element. I mentioned earlier that our tool global prospectivity has evaluated over 150 different exclusive economic zones. By the way, I shouldn't assume everyone knows what that means, exclusive economic zone is the 200 miles from the short line out into the ocean, where governments, single governments, sovereign nations control what happens as it relates to mineral rights. And that's where we've been focused. U.S., of course, was on the list. We didn't see this kind of commitment from the government -- our own government before.

So we've started projects elsewhere, but that's why we're particularly excited now about the activity we're seeing at Bureau of Energy Management, BOEM, which is part of the Department of Interior, who are -- they're actively looking in alignment with these multiple agencies to provide mineral harvesting from our own U.S. waters on the outer continental shelf.

And Odyssey had the foresight back in 2021, even before, we had this visible commitment from our government to become a qualified contractor, which makes us -- makes -- gives us the opportunity to apply for these applications is what I should say. So there's that. That was a good question and a long answer, but I thought it deserved a lot of color.

Okay. There's another question. You mentioned that there are only a limited number of ways for investors to access this space and the mineral -- I'm sorry, the metals company is often cited as a frontrunner, can you explain how Odyssey's approach differs and what sets it apart as an investment opportunity.

And I think my quick answer is you should own both, I do. I own a lot more Odyssey than I do TMC. But look, we're big fans of TMC. They're a strong company, and we need them to succeed. And I hope they feel the same about us because we really have -- were the 2 companies that for more than a decade, have been leading this charge and have projects at the most advanced stage. So for this industry to develop, we need responsible operators more than just one. And we do have -- we -- I would say this, we have different business models. We're not direct competitors. There's a lot of resource out there. And there's a lot of ways we've cooperated in programs in the past and intend to continue to do so with them.

I think the biggest difference is TMC has been primarily focused on the, Clarion-Clipperton Zone, which is a very rich polymetallic nodule rich area of the ocean between Hawaii. If you do a diagonal line between Hawaii and Mexico, there's a geological feature there that has created an amazing abundance of nodules. The nodules are slightly different. There's in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, we'll have higher nickel content. Ours in the Cook Islands have higher cobalt, but they're both going to be needed to fill the demand needs. That area of the ocean has been regulated by the United Nations, although the U.S. has just announced accelerated licensing through NOAA.

By contrast, Odyssey, as I've mentioned now a couple of different times, has stayed away from that environment. We found it's difficult enough with an emerging business to deal with a single government to get 168 or however many are part of the International Seabed Authority of the United Nations now to agree we just saw is challenging. So -- and then portfolio diversification. So again, we have multiple minerals and TMC is focused on polymetallic nodules. And of course, that's the heaviest weighting in our portfolio as well, but we also have phosphate and now heavy mineral sands if the BOEM project progresses.

So it looks like I'm running out of time here. Let me see if I can answer one more quick one before the clock runs me out. How should investors think about the timeline from exploration and permitting to commercial production across the Cook Islands and Mexico phosphate projects?

Good question. So I mentioned earlier, these are long timelines. The good news is we've been working in Mexico for actually over a decade. 2012 is when we got our first exploration license there. There are some issues that have to be worked out. Anyone that's done any work on Odyssey will see that we had a dispute with the prior administration in Mexico that resulted in a NAFTA -- action under NAFTA that Odyssey brought and successful won late in 2024. So we're now working with our Mexican partner who I mentioned earlier, very well-respected Mexican business leader that's also an adviser on agri food issues to government to try to come up with a win-win solution there.

Once that solution is achieved, that project because it's using standard dredge technology that already exist could be in production in 12 to 18 months. The Cook Islands again, exploration program is pretty far advanced, but it will probably be several years before those projects could go to production from exploration to harvesting just because in that case, you're working in much deeper water with specialized equipment that's being developed.

So with that, I think I've run out of my 30 minutes of allotted time, but it's been a real pleasure to be here presenting to you today and any questions we didn't get to, we'll try to follow up directly. And I think there are some one-on-one slots, if any of this piqued your interest, take a look at my schedule on the platform here and feel free to book an appointment tomorrow. Be happy to talk at greater length.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. presentation. You may now disconnect, and please consult the conference agenda for the next presenting company.