Osmond Resources fast-tracks Spanish critical minerals push
- Rowena Duckworth
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Uber-high grades returned from channel sampling at Osmond Resources (ASX: OSM)’s Orión EU project have prompted the company to fast-track development of its flagship critical minerals asset in Southern Spain.
The Australian company has now outlined an accelerated pathway for its high-grade target area at Orión EU, where early channel, bulk and drill samples have confirmed strong titanium and zircon mineralisation, alongside potential for rare earth elements and silica.
Osmond plans to complete resource drilling and deliver a maiden JORC-compliant resource in the first half of this year. That work will be followed by metallurgical test work, mine planning and a scoping study in the second half of the year, as the company builds a development case aimed squarely at European and North American markets.
Management says its strategy has been squarely aimed at elevating Osmond into a cornerstone supplier of titanium, zirconium and hafnium, with rare earths adding extra strategic punch.
With the European Union racing to lock in home-grown critical minerals, Osmond is positioning itself neatly in the slipstream of that accelerating demand. The company is also looking into downstream options, including routes for offloading titanium minerals rutile and ilmenite, along with zircon, into EU and North American supply chains.
To support the accelerated work program, Osmond is currently raising $6.6 million via a share placement, with settlement expected next week. The funds will be directed toward drilling, metallurgical studies and early-stage development activities at Orión EU.
The company’s move to push forward with plans has also been very timely, coming hot on the heels of an Australian Government announcement yesterday to roll out a new Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.
The initiative highlights Canberra’s intent to secure supply chains for strategically important minerals such as titanium, zirconium, rare earths and related materials - a policy backdrop that adds weight to Osmond’s fast-tracked European strategy.
The Orión EU project sits in southern Spain’s Jaén Province, with a particular focus on the Ordovician-aged Pochico Formation, a siliciclastic sequence interpreted as a lithified placer sand system. In geological terms, the heavy minerals were initially concentrated in ancient coastal or near-shore environments before being cemented into quartzite over time.
A key attraction of the system is that the mineralisation is stratabound, occurring within predictable, relatively flat-lying layers. Where the quartzite unit crops out at surface, it can be traced along strike, simplifying exploration compared with many structurally complex hard-rock deposits.
Orión EU hosts a suite of minerals listed as critical raw materials by the European Union, including rutile, zircon and monazite — the primary sources of titanium, zirconium, hafnium and rare earth elements.
Titanium is a cornerstone metal for aerospace, defence and medical applications, while zircon and zirconium play vital roles in ceramics, refractories and nuclear technologies. Hafnium, which rarely occurs in economic concentrations, is prized for use in nuclear control rods and high-temperature alloys.
Adding further upside, the project contains both light and heavy rare earth elements, including magnet metals such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium - key inputs for electric vehicles, wind turbines and other clean-energy technologies.
With China’s export restrictions heightening Europe’s urgency to secure local critical mineral supply, Osmond’s Spanish discovery is emerging as a strategically important asset.
Resource definition, scoping studies and flowsheet development are scheduled through the first half of 2026, as the company works to fast-track what is shaping up as a potentially significant European critical minerals project.
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