American Ocean Minerals
American Ocean Minerals Corporation is a Delaware company formed on 9 May 2025 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida. It holds nodule applications with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) covering ~293,000 km² of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, and interests in two Cook Islands licenses. It has agreed to merge into Odyssey Marine Exploration (Nasdaq: OMEX), a transaction that remains pending.
News and articles
Overview
- Formed 9 May 2025 and converted to a C corporation on 18 September 2025. Head office at 400 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa, with a Toronto office.
- Licence-holding subsidiaries are AOM Area-1 LLC, AOM Area-2 LLC and AOM Area-3 LLC.
- The target metals are nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, with rare earth elements in the Cook Islands areas.
- The company holds applications and equity interests, not granted United States licenses. NOAA has not issued a licence over either of its Clarion-Clipperton Zone areas.
- Executive Order 14285 of 24 April 2025 directed agencies to expedite offshore critical minerals permitting, and NOAA’s consolidated review rules took effect on 21 January 2026.
Areas
| Area | Regime | Size | Resource and status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Area-1, Clarion-Clipperton Zone | United States, DSHMRA, NOAA | ~147,053 km² in five subareas | 847 Mt inferred wet nodules at a 6 kg/m² cutoff, grading 23 to 32% manganese, 1.1 to 1.3% nickel, 1.03 to 1.3% copper and 0.15 to 0.26% cobalt. Application filed 23 September 2025, substantial compliance 5 December 2025, full compliance 16 March 2026. A consolidated exploration and commercial recovery application reached substantial compliance on 7 July 2026, opening environmental and public review. A 2% gross royalty has been granted over the area. |
| Area-2, Penrhyn Basin | United States, DSHMRA, NOAA | ~146,154 km², Dorado North 56,509 and Dorado South 89,645 | 586 Mt inferred over Dorado North only. Filed 26 November 2025, full compliance 23 February 2026. NOAA ruled that an earlier third-party filer has priority over Dorado North. There is no abundance data for Dorado South. |
| Moana-1, Cook Islands licence EL3 | Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority | ~23,630 km² | 417 Mt indicated at 26.7 kg/m² plus 102 Mt inferred, grading 15.6% manganese, 0.49% cobalt, 0.27% nickel and 0.15% copper. Granted 23 February 2022 for five years. Held through Ocean Minerals LLC, in which AOM holds 33.2%, rising to 100% on closing of the merger. A pre-feasibility study is due in the second half of 2026. |
| CIC Limited, Cook Islands licence EL1 | Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority | 211,545 km² across 2,592 blocks | 1,950 Mt inferred wet nodules at 19.9 kg/m², grading 15.7% manganese, 0.46% cobalt and 0.33% nickel. AOM moves to 33% of CIC on closing, with staged options above a US$200 million CIC valuation. |
The Odyssey merger
The merger is agreed but not closed. Amendment No. 2 to the registration statement was filed on 5 August 2026 and remains a preliminary document marked subject to completion. It has not been declared effective, and the meeting date, record date and final share counts are still blank.
- Announced 8 April 2026. Odyssey Marine Exploration would issue 4.5017 of its shares for each AOM share, or 0.1801 after the planned 1 for 25 reverse split. Holders who would cross 4.99% take convertible preferred instead.
- The implied pro forma equity value is ~US$1 billion. AOM shareholders would hold ~93.4% of the combined company and Odyssey shareholders ~6.6%.
- Financing alongside the deal: a US$75.6 million bridge at 8%, converting at a 25% discount to the placement, and a US$156.4 million placement at US$1.10.
- Conditions still outstanding include Odyssey shareholder approval, the Oceanica and Mexico non-core asset transactions, at least US$25 million gross of placement proceeds, at least US$100 million of AOM cash at closing, conversion of the bridge, the reverse split, and NOAA not denying the application.
- The combined company would be renamed American Ocean Minerals Corporation and trade on Nasdaq as AOMC.
- The outside date is 8 October 2026, extendable to about 8 January 2027. A US$2.2 million termination fee is payable by Odyssey only.
- On 21 July 2026 Odyssey received a Nasdaq notice for trading below the US$1.00 minimum bid, with a compliance deadline of 19 January 2027. The reverse split is intended to cure it.
Ownership
- AOM is private and the registration statement contains no table of its 5% holders. The only individual holding disclosed is chief executive Mark B. Justh, at ~6.8% of AOM and ~9.2% indirectly of CIC Limited.
- A group described as key AOM stockholders, holding a majority of the shares, signed a support agreement. They are not named in the filing.
- AOM had 106,777,300 shares outstanding at 30 April 2026, rising to 160,277,530 immediately before closing.
- CIC Limited is held 64.38% by CIC LLC, which carries 100% of the voting rights, 14.23% by Odyssey Marine Minerals LLC and 0.20% by Albanese.
Listed exposure
There is no American Ocean Minerals ticker and no listed security to chart. The only listed exposure is Odyssey Marine Exploration (Nasdaq: OMEX), the counterparty to the pending merger. Odyssey has its own assets and its own Nasdaq compliance issue, so its shares are not a clean read on AOM.
Merger documents
American Ocean Minerals files nothing of its own with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Its disclosure reaches the public through Odyssey Marine Exploration, under central index key 0000798528. The registration statement and its amendments carry the areas, the resource figures, the leadership and the deal terms. Every document is hosted here.