Welcome back. We have an update from Odyssey Marine Exploration. They trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol OMEX. They're an ocean explorer committed to sustainable and responsible discovery, validation, and advancement of seafloor critical mineral projects, including polymetallic nodules for battery metals and subsea phosphate deposits for fertilizers. Happy to welcome back Chairman and CEO Mark Gordon. Welcome back to the conference, Mark. We are ready for your update.
Awesome. It's always great to be here with you. Excited to provide an update because a lot's happened since the last time I've been on your platform, and we love being able to give updates on our progress through your vehicle. So, briefly, forward-looking information disclaimer standard applies to the comments I'll make today. Let's get right into the presentation. I have never been more excited about our sector right now.
I see us entering a meteoric growth phase. That might be sounding like dramatic, but I think that's what we're about to see. I think that because global demand is accelerating for critical minerals and governments around the world, our own and others, are trying to figure out how to secure responsible supply chains to provide the minerals they desperately need, and right now, a lot of that's controlled by China.
So this is a big focus, especially for our government and other allies. The other thing is very few public companies right now offer exposure to investors. So, Odyssey is certainly an opportunity for investors interested in this space. Odyssey is really well- positioned.
We've been at this for over 30 years, working in the deep ocean, honing the skills to be able to capitalize on this current opportunity. We have a diversified portfolio of projects, which we'll talk about in a second. And we've demonstrated over this 30-year history that we can navigate the regulatory landscape that's going to determine the winners and the losers in this space. So, busy time since we last spoke. A lot of accomplishments.
In October of 2025, we deployed at over 5,500 meters of water in the Cook Islands two of our Autonomous Benthic Mini Landers, ABMLs. I'm going to call them for the rest of the presentation. These are devices, very sophisticated devices. Very few exist in the world today. We own two of the few that exist, and they're both deployed right now in the Cook Islands.
They're gathering environmental data, which is going to be critical for the Cook Islands government to be able to make an informed decision on whether they'll advance their license holders from exploration to extraction, which will unlock all the value in these projects. In November 2025, Odyssey is, to my knowledge, one of the first American locations for application under the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM licensing. We have an exciting project.
I'll talk more about it in a minute, but we launched that application. One of the first. We improved our balance sheet. We've converted over $20 million of debt to equity, removing that debt overhang that we had on the books, fully extinguishing all of our promissory notes that were out there creating that overhang. Important legal victory in Mexican court.
I had mentioned this in prior discussions to watch for us moving this Mexican project ahead, and a key marker would be whether we had gotten the ability to restore concessions that had been taken away, and we now have. We just announced that a couple of weeks ago, and then fortuitously for us, because we have that phosphate project in Mexico and others, the U.S. government just put phosphate on the U.S. critical minerals list.
So that couldn't have come at a better time, given our Mexican project, as well as several of our other projects that contain phosphate. So that BOEM application I just mentioned, I'll refer to it as our Mid-Atlantic project, significant because it adds a new mineral set to our portfolio, rare earth elements, specifically titanium and zirconium. But what's really great is the byproduct after we remove these valuable minerals from the sand is the sand itself has value for beach replenishment and for coastal resiliency, building dunes and things to protect our shorelines.
We have this first mover advantage, as I mentioned, first to apply for a license like this with BOEM. And what's really great is the extraction technology uses everyday dredging technology, and we have a great partner for this, which I'll talk about in a second.
But what's really important is low CapEx for the extraction because it already exists. Also, fast time to market because it already exists. But what's really great is there's a very well-known environmental impact, which is the critical gate to see if you can move from exploration to extraction.
The other thing I'd mention here is that Odyssey had the foresight to four years ago now, when these BOEM licenses were an early- stage concept, we got approved as one of the few BOEM certified contractors so that we can make these opportunities or take advantage of these opportunities. And then finally, I mentioned the partner. We've signed an exclusivity agreement for this project with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, GLDD on the NASDAQ, and they're America's largest dredging company.
What's really great is they've been operating in the same exact area of operation as where we've applied for our operation using the same process, same equipment, so that's really exciting for this project. We talk about our projects moving up a value curve. At the far left is when they're first getting going. They're very low value because there's a lot of steps to de-risk the project to get it to where it could go into production, and the Mid-Atlantic project that I just mentioned is obviously on the far left.
We're not even talking about a value because we're far from securing rights at this point, but it's starting its move up our value curve. CIC and OML, those are our two Cook Islands projects, and I'll talk about those in detail in a second about what their potential value is.
They're about halfway up the value curve right now, where we're getting actual resource statements published, which help establish value of the resource. PhogsagMex, our Mexican phosphate project, that's furthest up to the right, and we need one environmental permit, which we're working with the Mexican government right now to try to secure, and if successful, that will unlock all of the asset value in that project.
A nd important first step, as just mentioned, is that the concessions are about to be restored, which was the thing we needed to happen to advance our discussions with the Mexican government, so why now invest in Odyssey or in this sector in general, but let me talk about Odyssey. We have this multi-asset portfolio diversified for mineral risk and geopolitical risk.
All of our projects, as you've just seen from my timeline I showed earlier, have had significant accomplishments in the past 90 days, moving them up the value curve. We're benefiting from this macro tailwind of governments looking to secure sources of critical minerals, the U.S. and others.
And then finally, as I mentioned, I think at the outset, as far as I know, Odyssey is only one of two U.S. publicly traded pure plays for investors that want to get involved in this space and get exposure to, if my prediction's right at the outset, we have meteoric growth on the horizon. Now's the time to get in. Talking about the projects, PhogsagMex, the Mexican project, we have what we believe is a conservative $1.3 billion net present value for that asset once it's permitted for extraction. We own 35% of that.
By the way, the column to the left, the 50%, we're simply cutting the numbers in half to set up a range of values. Our two Cook Islands projects, OML and CIC. OML has a published resource report developed by independent experts, and they currently put a net present value of $4.7 billion on their battery metal resource. And we own 7% of OML. CIC has not published their resource report yet or projected any values. We're simply plugging in OML's same resource value. Here's why we think that's conservative.
CIC owns the license area directly adjacent to OML, so the same mineralogy. And CIC's license area is about eight times the size. So we think using OML's valuation as a placeholder until CIC publishes theirs is a good proxy for value. We own 14% of that.
Now, when you look to the totals, we have a range of $700 million-$1.4 billion in potential asset value against our market cap, which right now is a fraction of even the low end of that range. Now, I think you could also look at any one of these lines and say if we're successful in only one of these projects, you're still seeing significant arbitrage between our current market value and what the value of one of these assets can be worth. So that wraps up my prepared comments. I'm not sure how we're doing on time, if we have time for questions, or not.
Let's see. We really don't, but I want to give you just a quick second. Should investors view these wins? You talked about technology, regulation, and the balance sheet. Is it part of a bigger inflection point for Odyssey?
I'll go quick. I think it is. I don't think these are isolated events. I actually think these are factors that are intertwined, reinforce each other, and create this huge strategic lift for Odyssey. What do I mean by that? Policy momentum increases project relevance. Project relevance increases regulatory and investor engagement.
Our technical execution, like the ABMLs, converts relevance into reality and value, and regulatory clarity opens up these development pathways to move from exploration to extraction right at the time we're getting the data we need to support the regulators making that decision, and then finally, our balance sheet strength increases our ability to take advantage of this amazing opportunity at this point, so I'll stop there.
Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Congratulations on this, and we look forward to following along with your updates in the new year. Happy New Year to you.
Yeah, you too, Anna. Thank you so much.
All right, everyone. We'll be right back.