OD6 finds near-pure fluorspar across Big Jim channel in Nevada

Big Jim returns 14m of high-grade fluorspar

OD6 Metals Limited (ASX:OD6) has replaced a handful of spectacular rock chips with a more systematic result at Big Jim: seven contiguous two-metre samples returned 14 metres at 93.7% CaF₂. Six of the seven samples graded above 93%, while the lowest sample within the vein returned 80.6% CaF₂.

The best part of the interval was 12 metres at 95.9% CaF₂, with individual samples ranging from 93.5% to 97.6% CaF₂ across the first six intervals. The eighth sample, taken beyond the exposed vein, returned 0.6% CaF₂ in wall rock, marking a sharp boundary rather than a diffuse mineralised halo.

Channel sampling lifts Big Jim ahead of drilling

The result matters because channel sampling is more representative than selective rock-chip sampling. OD6 collected the samples continuously along the exposed vein, through the historic adit and along the cliff face. The company said the grades are consistent with its 98.3% CaF₂ metallurgical sample and with historical records from 1947, which described a roughly two-metre-wide high-grade lode across workings mapped for more than 220 metres.

There is an important qualification in the headline number. The 14-metre interval measures length along the structure, not its thickness. Big Jim is observed as a shallow west-dipping vein approximately two metres thick, with the mineralisation continuing beneath talus, covered workings and jasperoid. The channel therefore supports grade continuity along the exposed section, but does not establish continuity at depth, true width or a resource.

Big Jim now sits inside a proposed exploration program that had already been framed around a 10,000-metre maiden drilling plan. OD6 said permitting through the US Forest Service is well advanced, with Big Jim identified as a priority target. Drilling will be the test of whether the surface grades persist below cover and along the broader historic strike.

Rocket result extends the high-grade corridor

A separate rock-chip sample from a dozer scrape on the upper Rocket lode, about 150 metres west of Big Jim, returned 99.9% CaF₂. That result is selective by nature and should not be treated as equivalent to the Big Jim channel interval, but it adds to earlier Rocket results including an 88.8% in-situ sample and float samples as high as 99.9% CaF₂.

Together with Spar, the prospects define a roughly 700-metre corridor containing at least four mineralised structures. OD6 says the narrow, high-purity veins could complement the wider Horseshoe and Mammoth targets by offering potential feed for a direct-shipping Metspar product, while further metallurgical work would be required to assess any development pathway.

Permitting remains the next practical hurdle

The exploration upside is clear, but the project remains at the pre-drilling stage. The company has not reported a mineral resource, and the Rocket result is a rock chip rather than a systematic interval. The immediate catalysts are US Forest Service approval, maiden drilling and follow-up mapping or channel sampling across the Rocket and Spar structures.