Nevada Organic Phosphate MM26-11 Hole Tests 3 km Strike Extension

A drill hole with no assays usually reads like a non-event. MM26-11 is different: it has told investors nothing yet about grade, but it sits 315 m beyond a hole that already pushed the known strike past 3 km.

For Nevada Organic Phosphate (CSE: NOP), that makes this hole a test of whether the Murdock Mountain story keeps building or begins to thin out.

The company is pitching a sedimentary phosphate bed in northeast Nevada as what it believes is the only known large-scale organic-certifiable project of its kind in North America. This is early-stage exploration with no NI 43-101 resource. NI 43-101 is the Canadian standard for publicly reporting mineral resources, so every step-out carries real weight for the thesis.

The company announced the start of MM26-11 on 8 October 2026. Here is what the hole is meant to prove, which assay and chemistry readings deserve your attention when results land, and how much weight the organic-certifiable claim can bear on current evidence.

What MM26-11 adds to the strike story, and what it does not

The concrete part is a pattern of step-outs. On 26 August 2026, the company reported that MM26-10 intersected the Upper Phosphate Zone at a weighted average of 10.89% P₂O₅ over 3.60 m true thickness, extending the known mineralised strike beyond 3 km. P₂O₅ (phosphorus pentoxide) is the standard measure of phosphate content in rock.

MM26-11, drilled from Pad 13, steps a further 315 m along strike within the mapped Meade Peak Member of the Phosphoria Formation. Its collar sits at 722732E, 4567216N, recorded by handheld GPS rather than formal survey.

Drilling was briefly held up when a water tanker truck broke its transfer case, with the replacement part sourced from Illinois. It is a minor note, but it shows how little logistical slack a junior explorer often has.

Then there is the gap. No assays, intercepts or grades exist for MM26-11, and the company says results will follow when available.

Robin Dow, CEO Dow describes the programme as measured and systematic, with each hole adding information that guides the next stage of technical assessment.

Director and Qualified Person Garry K. Smith, P.Geo., said logging, sampling and analytical data will feed the ongoing evaluation. Company materials cite historic thicknesses of about 3.35-3.5 m and grades of 3-15% P₂O₅, so MM26-10 sits comfortably inside that range. That tells you the drilling is confirming the model, not overturning it, but one hole says little about continuity until the next intercept lines up.

Moving from step-out drilling to a defined mineral resource estimate requires enough closely spaced holes to demonstrate geological and grade continuity, which is exactly the gap that separates conceptual targets from reportable tonnage.

What a step-out hole must prove in the Meade Peak Member

To judge MM26-11 properly, you need a picture of the rock it is drilling into. The Phosphoria Formation is a sequence of sedimentary rocks across the US West, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) has long treated its Meade Peak Member as a principal phosphorite-bearing unit. A phosphorite is a sedimentary rock rich in phosphate minerals.

These beds are laterally extensive and can stay continuous over tens of kilometres. They also show local structural disruption and facies changes, meaning shifts in rock character from place to place.

The company’s model treats the Upper Phosphate Zone as shallow-dipping to near-horizontal. The bed has been mapped over an initial strike of about 6-6.6 km, and the company says additional land applications could extend potential beyond 30 km. For any of that to matter, step-out holes must establish four things:

1. Useful thickness maintained along the intended mining horizon.
2. Adequate grade for direct application or simple beneficiation (basic upgrading of the ore).
3. Acceptable contaminant levels, especially cadmium and uranium, across multiple holes.
4. Predictable mineability: shallow dip, limited faulting and manageable overburden (the waste rock above the bed).

The third test is the one many readers skip. Cadmium, uranium, vanadium and organic carbon can be elevated in certain Meade Peak facies, and that chemistry can change along strike, so every new hole is a chemistry test as well as a length test.

Why continuity is not the same as viability

A bed can run for kilometres and still be unfit for the market it is aimed at. Organic certification regimes, such as those of the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) and the US Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (USDA-NOP), focus on origin and processing.

A natural rock can still be disallowed if it is processed with synthetic acids or if its metal content is too high. For you, that means future assay tables work as a pass/fail screen on the organic thesis, not just a grade scoreboard.

Is organic-certifiable phosphate a moat or a niche?

The scarcity argument is genuinely appealing. Most of the world’s phosphate cannot qualify for organic use, and three drivers explain why:

• Regulation: organic standards typically allow only minimally processed natural rock, prohibit most chemical acidulation (treating rock with acid to make it soluble) and limit heavy metals.
• Contaminants: many sedimentary phosphorites, including some in the Phosphoria, carry cadmium, uranium and other trace metals that may exceed certifier or state limits.
• Solubility: raw sedimentary rock phosphate dissolves poorly and releases phosphorus slowly.

Against that backdrop, the company’s belief that it holds the only known large-scale organic-certifiable sedimentary phosphate project in North America sounds like a moat. It is, however, a company claim and has not been independently verified.

The sceptic’s case cools things quickly. Low solubility means high application rates, which push up freight and spreading costs, and organic growers already have manures, composts, bone meal and conventional options.

Fertoz offers a useful precedent: it built a modest-scale business supplying ground rock phosphate to organic producers, with logistics and marketing at its core. That suggests a real market exists, though possibly a specialty one.

Seasonal swings in US phosphate demand influence how quickly a regional supplier could place product with growers, which matters for a project positioned near highway and rail links serving California or the East Coast.

Scarcity only matters if buyers will pay a delivered price that covers grinding, freight and certification. You should weigh the company’s highway and rail argument as heavily as the geology.

Risks, precedents and the assay checkpoints that matter

Precedent is sobering. Arianne Phosphate advanced Lac à Paul in Québec through resource definition and feasibility, yet faced prolonged financing and off-take challenges. Chatham Rock Phosphate delineated significant marine resources in New Zealand but met regulatory rejection in the mid-2010s, and many Idaho and Utah Phosphoria juniors never progressed beyond exploration.

The core risks for Nevada Organic Phosphate follow the same pattern:

• No NI 43-101 mineral resource has been defined.
• Tonnage figures are conceptual exploration targets.
• Bulk-commodity juniors often struggle to raise capital before a resource or off-take interest exists.
• Any mining stage would require far heavier permitting than exploration.
• Moving from a drilling team to a mining and distribution operation is a major leap.

Bulk-commodity explorers sit at the riskiest end of junior resource stocks, where capital access before a resource or off-take interest exists often decides whether a project survives long enough to be tested.

The company’s Exploration Target Mineral Inventory (ETMI) for the initial permit area is 10-46 million tonnes at 3-15% P₂O₅, assuming 3.5 m thickness and a specific gravity of about 2.6. Combined potential across additional applications reaches roughly 200-230 million tonnes if continuity holds.

Conceptual, not a resource The ETMI figures rest on limited drilling and modelling. The current level of exploration is inadequate to define a mineral resource.

On the permitting side, the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the project on 13 September 2024, covering a 1,575-acre area with up to 26 drill sites to depths of 70 m. A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is in place, and wildlife surveys were cleared in April 2026. When MM26-11 assays arrive, check these in order:

1. True thickness against the 3.60 m benchmark.
2. P₂O₅ grade against 10.89%.
3. Cadmium and uranium levels.
4. Structural or overburden notes.

A strong grade with elevated cadmium or uranium would damage the organic-certifiable case more than a modest grade with clean chemistry. Read the results with that weighting in mind.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Exploration targets and forward-looking statements are speculative and subject to change based on drilling results and company performance.

Reading the next assay release with the right yardstick

MM26-11 is one step in a model-building phase. Its value lies in what it tests, and right now it has produced no data.

When results arrive, three yardsticks matter: thickness, grade and contaminant chemistry. Even favourable readings on all three leave a long distance between a conceptual exploration target and a defined resource, economic studies and organic certification.

The disciplined approach is to wait for both the assays and the chemistry before adjusting your view of the organic-certifiable thesis. A headline grade alone will not settle it.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions.