Oleblue
1 week ago
PULSAR ANNOUNCES FURTHER ANALYSIS PUTTING TOPAZ IN THE TOP TIER OF GLOBAL PRIMARY HELIUM PROJECTS
Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR & OTCQB:PSRHF) (“Pulsar” or the “Company”) is today reporting further results from its ongoing exploration program at its 100% owned Topaz project in Minnesota.
• Flow rate of up to 821,000 cubic feet per day with helium grade between 8.7-14.5%.
• 162 psi (1,117 kpa) bottom hole pressure.
• 70% pressure rebound within the first hour of post-flow shut-in. The fast build-up of pressure is
regarded as highly positive, suggesting that there is a significant volume of gas present.
As previously announced, the Jetstream #1 appraisal well* recently completed flow testing operations where gas was recorded over a total of five flow tests at rates of up to 821,000 cubic feet per day with no formation water present. Laboratory analysis confirmed the world-class grade of helium, with analysis from an independent laboratory calculating helium content in the range of 8.7-14.5%.
The combination of flow rate multiplied by helium concentration confirms Jetstream #1 as world-class helium well in the context of other publicly listed helium explorers and developers.
The Jetstream #1 appraisal well is Pulsar’s first and only well on the property, which twinned and surpassed the original 2011 discovery which reported helium hosted in fractures. Ongoing analysis of Jetstream #1 has identified additional fractures sets, which in combination with the data collected to date confirms the presence of a globally significant discovery and provides Pulsar with the confidence to drill deeper and test the entirety of the interpreted helium-bearing zone, as identified by seismic surveys conducted by the Company.
Additional pressure data acquired from Jetstream #1 has confirmed 162 psi (1,117 kpa) bottom hole pressure, and 70% pressure rebound within the first hour of post-flow shut-in, suggesting the presence of significant volumes of gas. Well head (surface) pressure of 20 psi as previously announced, is not a static shut-in pressure, which was measured at 144 psi (993 kpa). Decreasing the flowing tubing head pressure at the surface serves to have a corresponding increase in the flow rate.
Ongoing Work
All data is now being transferred to Sproule International Ltd for their resource update calculation, expected to be completed in July. In the meantime, the Company is preparing for additional field activities consisting of seismic surveys, interpretation of the recently acquired in-fill FALCON airborne gravity gradiometry, and preparation for drilling later in 2024. The drilling is likely to consist of deepening Jetstream #1 and drilling step-out wells.
* In the State of Minnesota, the regulatory term is ‘exploratory boring’.
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR and on the OTCQB with the ticker PSRHF. Pulsar’s portfolio consists of its flagship Topaz helium project in Minnesota, USA, that has been drilled and flowed up to 14.5% helium, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences not associated with the production of hydrocarbons identified at each. For further information visit https://pulsarhelium.com, follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=en and LinkedIn
https://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc.
On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc.
“Thomas Abraham-James”
President, CEO and Director
Further Information:
Thomas Abraham-James President,
CEO and Director Pulsar Helium Inc.
connect@pulsarhelium.com
+ 1 (604) 599-0310
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward–looking statements and forward–looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward–looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated","anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook") are not historical facts and may be forward–looking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such
forward–looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward–looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.
No reserves have been assigned in connection with the Company's property interests to date, given their early stage of development. The future value of the Company is therefore dependent on the success or otherwise of its activities, which are principally directed toward the future exploration, appraisal and development of its assets, and potential acquisition of property interests in the future. Un-risked Contingent and Prospective Helium Volumes have been defined at the Topaz Project. However, estimating helium volumes is subject to significant uncertainties associated
with technical data and the interpretation of that data, future commodity prices, and development and operating costs. There can be no guarantee that the Company will successfully convert its helium volume to reserves and produce that estimated volume. Estimates may alter significantly or become more uncertain when new information becomes available due to for example, additional drilling or production tests over the life of field. As estimates change, development and production plans may also vary. Downward revision of helium volume estimates may adversely affect the Company's operational or financial performance.
Helium volume estimates are expressions of judgement based on knowledge, experience and industry practice. These estimates are imprecise and depend to some extent on interpretations, which may ultimately prove to be inaccurate and require adjustment or, even if valid when originally calculated, may alter significantly when new information or techniques become available. As further information becomes available through additional drilling and analysis the estimates are likely to change. Any adjustments to volume could affect the Company's exploration and development plans which may, in turn, affect the Company's performance. The process of estimating helium resources is complex and requires significant decisions and assumptions to be made in evaluating the reliability of available geological, geophysical, engineering, and economic date for each property. Different engineers may makedifferent estimates of resources, cash flows, or other variables based on the same available data.
Forward–looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward– looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to Pulsar may be unsuccessful in drilling commercially productive wells; drill costs may be higher than estimates; delays in the commencement of drilling, a temporary permit may not be issued, and other factors set forth under "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements and Market and Industry
Data" and "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward– looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward–looking statement. Any forward–looking statements
contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/643e9b04697598ab2651d990/6666cac7fb15ceec633c6e03_PLSRNR2024-25_JetstreamUpdate.pdf
Oleblue
2 weeks ago
We're Hopeful That Pulsar Helium (CVE:PLSR) Will Use Its Cash Wisely
Simply Wall St
June 07, 2024
TSXV:PLSR
Source: Shutterstock
Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.
So should Pulsar Helium (CVE:PLSR) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.
View our latest analysis for Pulsar Helium
How Long Is Pulsar Helium's Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. In March 2024, Pulsar Helium had US$2.3m in cash, and was debt-free. Importantly, its cash burn was US$4.5m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of approximately 6 months from March 2024. Notably, one analyst forecasts that Pulsar Helium will break even (at a free cash flow level) in about 11 months. That means it doesn't have a great deal of breathing room, but it shouldn't really need more cash, considering that cash burn should be continually reducing. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.
debt-equity-history-analysis
TSXV:PLSR Debt to Equity History June 7th 2024
How Is Pulsar Helium's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
Because Pulsar Helium isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. The skyrocketing cash burn up 175% year on year certainly tests our nerves. That sort of spending growth rate can't continue for very long before it causes balance sheet weakness, generally speaking. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Pulsar Helium due to its lack of significant operating revenues. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.
How Easily Can Pulsar Helium Raise Cash?
Given its cash burn trajectory, Pulsar Helium shareholders should already be thinking about how easy it might be for it to raise further cash in the future. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.
Since it has a market capitalisation of US$92m, Pulsar Helium's US$4.5m in cash burn equates to about 4.9% of its market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.
So, Should We Worry About Pulsar Helium's Cash Burn?
Even though its increasing cash burn makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Pulsar Helium's cash burn relative to its market cap was relatively promising. There's no doubt that shareholders can take a lot of heart from the fact that at least one analyst is forecasting it will reach breakeven before too long. Cash burning companies are always on the riskier side of things, but after considering all of the factors discussed in this short piece, we're not too worried about its rate of cash burn. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 7 warning signs for Pulsar Helium you should be aware of, and 4 of them are concerning.
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies with significant insider holdings, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)
Valuation is complex, but we're helping make it simple.
Find out whether Pulsar Helium is potentially over or undervalued by checking out our comprehensive analysis, which includes fair value estimates, risks and warnings, dividends, insider transactions and financial health.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
About TSXV:PLSR
Pulsar Helium
Engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of helium properties in the United States and Greenland.
https://simplywall.st/stocks/ca/energy/tsxv-plsr/pulsar-helium-shares/news/were-hopeful-that-pulsar-helium-cveplsr-will-use-its-cash-wi
Oleblue
2 weeks ago
PULSAR ANNOUNCES HELIUM FLOWING TO SURFACE AT JETSTREAM #1 IN MINNESOTA
Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR & OTCQB:PSRHF) (“Pulsar” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the safe and timely completion of logging, completion, and flow testing activities at the Jetstream #1 appraisal well* at its flagship Topaz helium project. A summary of the results is as follows:
• Helium and associated gases flowed to surface naturally in a free gas phase,
• Flow testing after clean up recorded a maximum rate of 821 thousand cubic feet per day (Mcf/d),
• New laboratory results from produced gas confirm concentrations between 8.7 – 14.5% helium,
• CO2 concentrations exceeding 70% have the potential to contribute to project economics,
• Vertical Seismic Profile (VSP) and wireline optical televiewer data was collected, and
• In-fill Airborne Gravity Gradiometry (AGG) survey flown.
Pulsar President and CEO, Thomas Abraham-James, stated: “The results of the Jetstream #1 flow test and laboratory analysis confirm a major new helium discovery, putting Topaz in the top tier of global primary helium projects. The comprehensive dataset acquired will give the Company the assurance it needs to fast track activities and realize Topaz’s commercial potential. The data will be analyzed by Sproule for their updated resource estimate, along with recommendations for future appraisal and development planning at Topaz. This is the first dedicated helium well drilled in Minnesota, and all data gathered indicates that this is not an isolated occurrence with the helium-bearing zone likely to extend laterally and at depth.”
Proposed future work The Jetstream #1 appraisal well was designed to replicate the original 2011 discovery at LOD-6. This was successful and the existing seismic data suggests that the helium-bearing zone persists at depth, up to an additional kilometer (3,281 feet). Future work programs are proposed to consist of deepening Jetstream #1 to assess this potential, in conjunction with drilling a nearby step-out well and conducting a 3D seismic survey to define the structural extent of the resource.
Flow Testing
Completion and initial flow testing activities have been finalized at the Jetstream #1 appraisal well. The flow test program included five flow tests of both natural flow and under wellhead compression from the open- hole section of the well (between 503-671 meters (1,650–2,200 feet) depth). Each test lasted approximately six hours in duration with pressure build-ups of 18 hours between natural flow tests and approximately six days until the start of the compression tests.
The flow test with well site compression reached a maximum absolute open flow of 821 Mcf/d at a flowing tubing head pressure of 20 psi on a 1 inch choke. Results during natural flow climbed to a peak of 150 Mcf/d with 34 psi flowing tubing head pressure on a 1 inch choke with the rate still on incline at the six-hour shut- in mark. Step rate and choked tests were also acquired to help understand reservoir production parameters which will be announced in due course.
* In the State of Minnesota, the regulatory term is ‘exploratory boring’.
Following well tests, tubing head pressure built up rapidly to near pre-flow conditions. There was evidence of introduced drilling fluid interference during the testing process, specifically in follow-up flows. Preliminary analysis indicates this is easily mitigated until these fluids are recovered during an early production clean-up flow period.
Laboratory Analysis
Gas samples were collected throughout the flow testing operations and were distributed to Isotech
Laboratory, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Caltech Noble Gas Lab. The results from Isotech have been received with up to 14.5% helium measured, prior to any atmospheric contamination correction.
An average of 9.9% helium was derived across 21 samples. Associated major gases include CO2 content of up to 71%, nitrogen up to 24%, and hydrocarbons constituting <5% of the total gas content. Gas isotope analysis will take place later in June for detailed gas chemistry investigation.
Resource Update
All data obtained from the Jetstream #1 well, in conjunction with seismic, gravity and magnetic data is being assessed by Sproule International Limited for an updated resource estimate to the Topaz project, contingent and prospective resource calculations. Further updates on this will be provided in due course.
Logging / Data Acquisition
Data acquired during the recent activities includes both downhole and broader site data, as follows:
• An optical televiewer was run through the open hole portion of the Jetstream #1 by Inner Earth
Technologies. Preliminary interpretation of the high-resolution image data confirms a series of fractures
within the open-hole section of the well across a 19 meter (62 foot) gross interval.
• A downhole vertical seismic profile (VSP) was acquired at Jetstream #1 by Baker Hughes and their partner SAExploration. The VSP gathers data on acoustic rock properties and provides a seismic image at the well location for depth correlation to future seismic imaging. In conjunction with the VSP, SAExploration conducted a series of seismic sweeps in the vicinity of Jetstream #1 to facilitate the design of future seismic acquisition.
• Xcalibur MPH (Canada) Ltd acquired an in-fill FALCON Airborne Gravity Gradiometry (AGG) and magnetic survey over the Topaz project area in May. The survey increases the data density for the FALCON survey acquired in 2022 to provide a higher resolution dataset to enhance the subsurface imaging. The Company will provide a further update on independent evaluations of the Jetstream #1 well data as additional material information is received. Data acquired during the past three weeks will assist with understanding of the Topaz resource, future potential production performance, facility design, and regional work program planning.
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR and on the OTCQB with the ticker PSRHF. Pulsar’s portfolio consists of its flagship Topaz helium project in Minnesota, USA, that has been drilled and flowed up to 14.5% helium, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences not associated with the production of hydrocarbons identified at each. For further information visit https://pulsarhelium.com, follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=en and LinkedIn
https://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc.
On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc.
“Thomas Abraham-James”
President, CEO and Director
Further Information:
Thomas Abraham-James President,
CEO and Director Pulsar Helium Inc.
connect@pulsarhelium.com
+ 1 (604) 599-0310
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward–looking statements and forward–looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward–looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated", "anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook") are not historical facts and may be forward–looking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forward–looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such
forward–looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.
No reserves have been assigned in connection with the Company's property interests to date, given their early stage of development. The future value of the Company is therefore dependent on the success or otherwise of its activities, which are principally directed toward the future exploration, appraisal and development of its assets, and potential acquisition of property interests in the future. Un-risked Contingent and Prospective Helium Volumes have been defined at the Topaz Project. However, estimating helium volumes is subject to significant uncertainties associated with technical data and the interpretation of that data, future commodity prices, and development and operating
costs. There can be no guarantee that the Company will successfully convert its helium volume to reserves and produce that estimated volume. Estimates may alter significantly or become more uncertain when new information becomes available due to for example, additional drilling or production tests over the life of field. As estimates change, development and production plans may also vary. Downward revision of helium volume estimates may adversely affect the Company's operational or financial performance.
Helium volume estimates are expressions of judgement based on knowledge, experience and industry practice. These estimates are imprecise and depend to some extent on interpretations, which may ultimately prove to be inaccurate and require adjustment or, even if valid when originally calculated, may alter significantly when new information or techniques become available. As further information becomes available through additional drilling and analysis the estimates are likely to change. Any adjustments to volume could affect the Company's exploration and development plans which may, in turn, affect the Company's performance. The process of estimating helium resources is complex and requires significant decisions and assumptions to be made in evaluating the reliability of available geological, geophysical, engineering, and economic date for each property. Different engineers may make different estimates of resources, cash flows, or other variables based on the same available data.
Forward–looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward– looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to Pulsar may be unsuccessful in drilling commercially productive wells; drill costs may be higher than estimates; delays in the commencement of drilling, a temporary permit may not be issued, and other factors set forth under "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements and Market and Industry
Data" and "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward– looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward–looking statement. Any forward–looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/643e9b04697598ab2651d990/6661444e87f49c335e543809_PLSRNR2024-24_Jetstream_Results.pdf
Daily Chart
Oleblue
4 weeks ago
PULSAR ANNOUNCES NEW HELIUM LEGISLATION IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR & OTCQB:PSRHF) (“Pulsar” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the State of Minnesota has enacted new legislation that includes helium exploration, production and for leasing on state lands following advances made by the Company at its Topaz helium project where the Jetstream #1 well flowed 13.8% helium. The new legislation came into effect on May 22 nd , after being signed into law by the State Governor.
The new regulatory framework allows the State of Minnesota to issue leases for exploration and production of non-hydrocarbon gases (including helium), with Pulsar already having lodged an application for new leases in areas of interest for helium and hydrogen. Prior to the new regulations, leases could only be issued on mineral rights that are privately held, accordingly all of Pulsar’s existing leases are with private entities.
Permitting of helium production projects will be governed by a temporary regulatory framework prior to final rules being adopted. By January 15, 2025, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources commissioner must submit recommendations to the relevant legislative committees for statutory and policy changes to facilitate exploration and production of non-hydrocarbon gases (including helium) and support temporary permits for gas (including helium) exploration and production.
President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Abraham-James commented: “Minnesota is open for business, and we are grateful to the State for supporting this new industry. The new legislation gives Pulsar certainty moving forward, creating a clear regulatory pathway for us to take Topaz to production.
As a result, we are now planning to accelerate our works at Topaz and expand our footprint in Minnesota.”
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR and on the OTCQB with the ticker PSRHF. Pulsar’s portfolio consists of the Topaz helium project in Minnesota that has been drilled and flowed 13.8% helium, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences not associated with the production of hydrocarbons identified at each. For further information visit https://pulsarhelium.com, follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=
NEWS RELEASE | MAY 23, 2024 | VANCOUVER BC
PULSAR ANNOUNCES NEW HELIUM LEGISLATION IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR & OTCQB:PSRHF) (“Pulsar” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the State of Minnesota has enacted new legislation that includes helium exploration, production and for leasing on state lands following advances made by the Company at its Topaz helium project where the Jetstream #1 well flowed 13.8% helium. The new legislation came into effect on May 22 nd , after being signed into law by the State Governor.
The new regulatory framework allows the State of Minnesota to issue leases for exploration and production of non-hydrocarbon gases (including helium), with Pulsar already having lodged an application for new leases in areas of interest for helium and hydrogen. Prior to the new regulations, leases could only be issued on mineral rights that are privately held, accordingly all of Pulsar’s existing leases are with private entities.
Permitting of helium production projects will be governed by a temporary regulatory framework prior to final rules being adopted. By January 15, 2025, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources commissioner must submit recommendations to the relevant legislative committees for statutory and policy changes to facilitate exploration and production of non-hydrocarbon gases (including helium) and support temporary permits for gas (including helium) exploration and production.
President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Abraham-James commented: “Minnesota is open for business, and we are grateful to the State for supporting this new industry. The new legislation gives Pulsar certainty moving forward, creating a clear regulatory pathway for us to take Topaz to production. As a result, we are now planning to accelerate our works at Topaz and expand our footprint in Minnesota.”
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR and on the OTCQB with the ticker PSRHF. Pulsar’s portfolio consists of the Topaz helium project in Minnesota that has been drilled and flowed 13.8% helium, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences not associated with the production of hydrocarbons identified at each. For further information visit https://pulsarhelium.com, follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=en and LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc.
On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc.
“Thomas Abraham-James”
President, CEO and Director
Further Information:
Thomas Abraham-James President,
CEO and Director Pulsar Helium Inc.
connect@pulsarhelium.com
+ 1 (604) 599-0310
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward–looking statements and forward–looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward–looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated", "anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook") are not historical facts and may be forward–looking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forward–looking statements. In particular and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to temporary permits for gas (including helium) exploration and production being issued to Pulsar on a timely basis, the application for new leases being successful. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward–looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.
Forward–looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward– looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to Pulsar may be unsuccessful in drilling commercially productive wells; drill costs may be higher than estimates; delays in the commencement of drilling, a temporary permit may not be issued, and other factors set forth under "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements and Market and Industry Data" and "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward– looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward–looking statement. Any forward–looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
https://assets-global.website-files.com/643e9b04697598ab2651d990/664f0b06a2899c55635047a7_PLSRNR2024-23_Legislation.pdf
Oleblue
1 month ago
NEWS RELEASE | MAY 6, 2024 | VANCOUVER BC
PULSAR HELIUM ANNOUNCES SPRING ROAD RESTRICTIONS END AT TOPAZ PROJECT
Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR & OTCQB:PSRHF) (“Pulsar” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Minnesota Department of Transport has announced that Spring road restrictions in the north frost zone have ended (12:01 AM Monday, May 6). The Company will immediately recommence field operations at the Jetstream #1 appraisal well* at its flagship Topaz helium project.
Activities will initially consist of road improvements and civil works, followed by down-hole logging, well
completion, and flow testing with a pressure build up program. All necessary contracts are in place, with vendors and equipment secured to complete the upcoming works.
Thomas Abraham-James, President and CEO said: “My colleagues and I are excited to obtain the outstanding data from Jetstream #1, and everything is in place to do so. I look forward to keeping the market updated with results as they arrive.”
The Jetstream #1 appraisal well reached total depth of 2,200 feet (671 meters) on February 27 th , with helium concentrations of up to 13.8% helium as measured by specialist gas equipment. Field activities have been on hold while Spring road restrictions, limiting heavy traffic, have been in force. Jetstream #1 has been designed and will be completed to be capable of transitioning to a future helium production well. * In the State of Minnesota, the regulatory term is ‘exploratory boring’.
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR and on the OTCQB with the ticker PSRHF. Pulsar’s portfolio consists of the Topaz helium project in Minnesota, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences not associated with the production of hydrocarbons identified at each. For further information
visit https://pulsarhelium.com, follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=en and LinkedIn
https://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc.
On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc.
“Thomas Abraham-James”
President, CEO and Director
Further Information:
Thomas Abraham-James President,
CEO and Director Pulsar Helium Inc.
connect@pulsarhelium.com
+ 1 (604) 599-0310
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward–looking statements and forward–looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward–looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated", "anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook") are not historical facts and may be forward–looking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forward–looking statements. In particular and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to the anticipated results of Jetstream #1 with regard to estimating the size of the reservoir intercepted; the results of the flow testing and pressure build-up program and collect pressurised gas samples to determine the concentration of the helium and other gases via an independent laboratory. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward–looking
statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.
Forward–looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward– looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to Pulsar may be unsuccessful in drilling commercially productive wells; drill costs may be higher than estimates; delays in the commencement of drilling, and other factors set forth under "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements and Market and Industry Data" and "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward– looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them, or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause
results to differ materially from those contained in any forward–looking statement. Any forward–looking
statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statements.
https://assets-global.website-files.com/643e9b04697598ab2651d990/6638a1c326ef8e53e1b5e90b_PLSRNR2024-20_Roads.pdf
Oleblue
4 months ago
Just the facts Mad'am. Presently, we do not know how large a resource we have so being bought out is out of the question for both the buyer and seller.
Helium is a nonrenewable resource that's produced naturally underground through the radioactive decay of elements like uranium and thorium.
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but it's relatively rare on Earth. It's found under the Earth's crust with other natural gases. Commercial helium is extracted from natural gas when the helium concentration is above 0.3%.
Helium is the only element on the planet that is a completely nonrenewable resource. It can't be artificially created, and it's produced as a byproduct of natural gas refinement.
Natural Radioactive Decay Forms Helium
Helium is abundant in space, where it's produced as a product of the fusion reaction inside stars such as the sun. The naturally occurring helium on Earth, though, comes from a different sort of process. Deep inside the Earth, radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium decay and turn into other elements. The byproduct of these reactions are tiny fragments called a-particles, which consist of two neutrons and two protons. Those particles pick up electrons from the environment around them and turn into helium, which gradually rises up through the crust and is emitted into the atmosphere, where it keeps rising until it gets into space [source: University of Pittsburgh].
Extracted Natural Gas Is Another Source
Fortunately for us, helium also gets into the natural gas that oil and gas drillers extract from the ground for use as fuel [source: University of Pittsburgh]. That gives us a supply that we can use for blowing up balloons, as well as for a wide variety of other industrial processes, ranging from arc welding to MRIs to manufacturing silicon chips for computers. There has to be a certain amount of helium in the natural gas — at least 0.3 percent by volume – to justify all the trouble of separating it from natural gas.
This is done through industrial processes that filter other impurities, such as water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the gas. Finally, a process called cryogenic processing is used to cool the gas and remove the methane that makes up most of it, leaving behind a crude form of helium that is about 50 to 70 percent pure, with small amounts of argon, neon and hydrogen making up the rest. Then, the crude helium is purified through another cooling and filtering process that results in a form of helium that's more than 99 percent pure [source: NAP].
Helium Production Issues
The problem is that there aren't that many places with natural gas fields that have enough helium in them, and extracting helium is hard to do efficiently and affordably and most of it comes from just a few sources, including the U.S. government's National Helium Reserve in Texas. With so much demand for helium for industry, there just isn't enough to go around. That shortage has hurt businesses such as Party City, a party supplies company, which has closed a significant number of stores [source: Gibson].
Liquid Helium vs. Helium Gas
When helium is cooled to extremely low temperatures, it transforms into a liquid. Liquid helium has unique properties, such as the ability to flow without friction, making it invaluable in scientific research, particularly in the field of cryogenics. While helium gas is more commonly encountered in everyday applications, liquid helium is crucial for specialized equipment like MRI machines [source: Siemens Healthineers].
Oleblue
4 months ago
Huge News Out of Minnesota: Exploratory Drill Has Discovered What Is Likely the Biggest Find in North America to Date
by George C. Upper III, Western Journal March 3, 2024 in News
A new find of underground helium in Minnesota could turn out to be one of the largest in the world, Minneapolis’s WCCO-TV reported Thursday.
The drill site, just outside Babbitt in the northeastern part of the state, took about a month from initially breaking ground to get to a depth of 2,200 feet.
What it found there, Pulsar Helium CEO Thomas Abraham-James called “a dream.”
“There was a lot of screaming, a lot of hugging and high fives. It’s nice to know the efforts all worked out and we pulled it off,” Abraham-James told WCCO.
He said that the concentration of helium sampled was 12.4 percent — about 30 times what the outlet referred to as “the industry standard,” and higher even than the company had forecast.
“12.4% is just a dream,” the CEO told the outlet. “It’s perfect.”
Further analysis remains to be done, of course, but the finding confirmed work completed in 2011 that indicated the presence of helium deep under the surface, the Duluth News Tribune reported.
Companies generally pursue helium concentrations above 0.3 percent that they can locate, the outlet noted.
“So now the real hard begins to find out what is it truly that we have and the size of the prize,” Abraham-James told the News Tribune.
Studying the size of the find and the feasibility of a full-sized mining operation could take up to a year, the company told WCCO.
The Topez Project, as the drill site is called, was initially planned to go to a depth of 2,250 feet, but had to stop earlier than expected because of “abnormally warm temperatures and looming road weight restrictions,” according to the paper.
A device that looks like a “glorified fire hydrant,” according to Abraham-James, will now be installed over the hole to allow for additional sampling and testing.
A crew from Duluth Metals in 2011 first discovered helium in the area when searching for platinum-palladium metals, the News Tribune reported.
Helium is valued for everything from filling balloons to being used as a safe and effective coolant in liquid form.
“It’s used in everything from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, semiconductor manufacturing and leak testing, to air tanks for medical patients and deep-sea divers, to aerospace and defense industries,” the News Tribune notes.
“This is outstanding news for the region as we continue to look at ways to diversify our local economy,” Republican state Rep. Roger Skraba said in a statement. “I look forward to working with state regulators to make sure that helium drilling can proceed here in Northern Minnesota safely and effectively.
“Helium is an incredibly important gas that is needed for a variety of modern products, and I am hopeful that we can source this gas and process it right here in the Northland in the very near future,” he added.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
https://ijr.com/huge-news-minnesota-exploratory-drill-discovered-likely-biggest-find-north-america-date/
Oleblue
4 months ago
Pulsar Confirms Helium Encountered in the Jetstream #1 Appraisal Well at the Topaz Project
This news caused a possible breakout and an increase in volume.
Daily Chart
ACCESSWIRE· Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc.
Thu, Feb 29, 2024, 6:00 AM EST3 min read
In This Article:
PSRHF
+23.77%
VANCOUVER BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 29, 2024 / Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR) ("Pulsar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that at 2:05AM CST February 28th, the Jetstream #1 appraisal well* at the Topaz helium project in Minnesota reached total depth (TD) of 2,200 feet (671 meters). Prior to reaching TD, helium shows were encountered during drilling between 1,750 - 2,200 feet (533 - 671 meters) with concentrations of up to 12.4% helium1** measured by the on-site mass spectrometer. When TD was reached, the well was conditioned with air to assist in removal of residual drill fluid, the well then began to naturally flow helium-rich gas at an unmeasured rate to surface at 6:30AM CST where the mudlog gas composition increased from 3.7% to 5.1% helium2 & 3** over a 5-hour clean-up period. Due to the significant air volumes pumped into the well during the drilling process, these measurements are considered to be a minimum value due to dilution by atmospheric contamination.
Pulsar's President & CEO, Thomas Abraham-James commented: "This is an outstanding result, I am delighted that helium has been identified in the Jetstream #1 appraisal well. It is a big day for helium exploration, confirming the original discovery in the new jurisdiction of Minnesota. I look forward to keeping the market updated with further results as they are received."
Due to the loss of circulation and returns while drilling, the origination depth of the gas shows are unable to be resolved until the comprehensive suite of open-hole wireline logs has been collected and processed by Baker Hughes. Baker Hughes was on site yesterday and has logged, with the data then requiring processing. Upon completion of the logging program, the well will be suspended for flow testing and the rig released and demobilized.
The geology was consistent throughout the well, interchanging troctolite/anorthosite, both of which are mafic igneous rocks with intermittent fractures.
The gas compositions were measured by the independent surface logging team using their on-site quadrupole mass spectrometer. Isotube gas samples have been taken from the mass spectrometer at the various show intervals and will be shipped to a specialist gas laboratory for full molecular composition, removal of atmospheric (air) contamination, and isotopic characterization.
Drilling of the Jetstream #1 appraisal well ended 50 feet higher than the planned TD (2,250 feet / 686 meters) due to abnormally high winter temperatures and the imminent start of Spring Load Restrictions on local road systems. A well testing package is intended to rig up on Jetstream #1 and execute a flow testing and pressure build-up program, plus collect pressurised gas samples for laboratory analysis when road conditions allow heavy traffic to return.
As per the State of Minnesota's exploratory boring regulations, Jetstream #1 is regulated by the Minnesota Department of Health who also visited site, with Jetstream #1 being in full compliance with the State's regulations.
* In the State of Minnesota, the regulatory term is ‘exploratory boring'.
** Gas concentrations were measured via quadrupole mass-spectrometer under drilling conditions. Measurements on this device are conducted every 100 seconds and only occur when wellbore fluids are circulating or naturally flowing from the wellbore to the surface. Additional samples will be taken from the isolated flow test system to be conducted at a later time and sent to a third party laboratory for compositional analysis.
1: 123,601 ppm
2: 37,036 ppm
3: 51,440 ppm
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR. It is dedicated to defining and developing primary helium assets. Its portfolio consists of the Topaz helium project in Minnesota, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences identified at each. Topaz is the Company's flagship, having been drilled and flowing a remarkably high helium concentration of 10.5%. For further information visit https://pulsarhelium.com and follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=en and LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc.
On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc.
"Thomas Abraham-James"
President, CEO and Director
Further Information:
Thomas Abraham-James President,
CEO and Director Pulsar Helium Inc.
connect@pulsarhelium.com
+ 1 (604) 599-0310
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated", "anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook") are not historical facts and may be forward-looking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. In particular and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to the anticipated results of Jetstream #1 with regard to estimating the size of the reservoir intercepted; the results of the flow testing and pressure build-up program and collect pressurised gas samples to determine the concentration of the helium and other gases via an independent laboratory. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.
Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward- looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to Pulsar may be unsuccessful in drilling commercially productive wells; the helium gas concentrations are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance, nor long-term results; drill costs may be higher than estimates; delays in the commencement of drilling, and other factors set forth under "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements and Market and Industry Data" and "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them, or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Any forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
SOURCE: Pulsar Helium Inc.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pulsar-confirms-helium-encountered-jetstream-110000914.html
Oleblue
4 months ago
Caliche to construct world's largest helium salt storage cavern at Spindletop complex
NOVEMBER 6, 2023 8:43 AM
Caliche Development Partners II recently announced plans to construct the world's largest helium salt storage cavern at Golden Triangle Storage (GTS) in Beaumont, Texas.
Caliche to construct world's largest helium salt storage cavern at Spindletop complex
Caliche Beaumont facilities.
The project will create the second helium cavern in North America, following Caliche's development and operation of the first such cavern at Coastal Caverns.
Caliche is honored to be trusted with the stewardship of this valuable natural resource, especially with the recent changes and possible closure of the US Bureau of Land Management's Strategic Helium reserve. Helium not only brings joy to many in the form of balloons, but it is also critical to space exploration, semiconductor manufacture and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.
The helium project will be the company's first of five phases of growth at GTS, made possible under its newly received tax abatement agreements. Each phase includes utilizing one or two of the nine permitted cavern locations, two of which are presently in service in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificated natural gas storage.
"The GTS team brings a long history of safely storing small and valuable molecules underground," said Dave Marchese, chief executive officer at Caliche. "Between the recent restrictions by Russia and China on US access to the global helium supply, and the challenges surrounding the Federal Helium Reserve System sale, we believe GTS can help ensure a stable domestic supply for all critical end users."
As part of GTS' expansion plans, Caliche has issued an open season and sought authorization from FERC for expansion of its existing facility, identifying two of the permitted caverns for natural gas service. The company welcomes inquiries for its permitted and planned wells for hydrogen storage and has begun the Class VI permitting process for CO2 sequestration in recently leased subsurface zones under 4,000 contiguous acres in Jefferson County.
https://www.bicmagazine.com/industry/tank-term-storage/caliche-to-construct-worlds-largest-helium-salt-storage-cavern/?utm_source=pocket_saves
Caliche Development Partners II (Caliche) is a private equity-backed, acquisition and development company focused on the underground storage of natural gas, industrial gases like hydrogen and helium, and carbon sequestration. Based in Houston, TX, Caliche's projects are located in Jefferson County on the US Gulf Coast (Golden Triangle Storage, GTS) and in Colusa County, CA (Central Valley Gas Storage, CVGS). The Caliche management team previously developed and sold its underground storage business (Coastal Caverns) on the historic Spindletop salt dome in Beaumont. The transaction reflected a positive realization of a partnership with Energy Spectrum Capital, conceived to grow and improve energy infrastructure in North America through development and acquisition.
Caliche is committed to leading infrastructure development companies in sustainability. Specifically, it is leveraging its expertise and relationships with large-scale emitters to spur the energy transition.
Oleblue
4 months ago
The era of cheap helium is over—and that’s already causing problems
By Amy Nordrum
MIT Technology Review
February 25, 2024
MIT Technology Review is celebrating our 125th anniversary with an online series that draws lessons for the future from our past coverage of technology.
In the nuclear magnetic resonance facility at Mississippi State University, three powerful magnets make it possible to see how atoms form bonds. Chemists there use the technology to design new polymers and study how bacteria bind to surfaces. To make it all work, they need an element that’s commonly found in grocery stores, but is also in perpetually short supply: helium.
Every 12 weeks, the university pays $5,000 to $6,000 to replenish the liquid helium required to cool the superconducting wire coiled up inside the magnets down to -452 °F (-269 °C).
“It’s by far the biggest expense we have,” says Nicholas Fitzkee, the facility’s director. “The price that drives our user fees is the purchase of liquid helium, and that has pretty much doubled over the past year or so.”
Helium is excellent at conducting heat. And at temperatures close to absolute zero, at which most other materials would freeze solid, helium remains a liquid. That makes it a perfect refrigerant for anything that must be kept very cold.
Liquid helium is therefore essential to any technology that uses superconducting magnets, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and some fusion reactors. Helium also cools particle accelerators, quantum computers, and the infrared detectors on the James Webb Space Telescope. As a gas, helium whisks heat away from silicon to prevent damage in semiconductor fabs.
“It’s a critical element for the future,” says Richard Clarke, a UK-based helium resources consultant who co-edited a book about the element. Indeed, the European Union includes helium on its 2023 list of critical raw materials, and Canada put it on a critical minerals list too.
Again and again throughout the history of technology development, helium has played a critical role while remaining in tight supply. As part of MIT Technology Review’s 125th anniversary series, we looked back at our coverage of how helium became such an important resource, and considered how demand might change in the future.
Countries have at times taken extreme measures to secure a steady helium supply. In our June 1975 issue, which focused on critical materials, a Westinghouse engineer named H. Richard Howland wrote about a controversial US program that stockpiled helium for decades.
Even today, helium is not always easy to get. The world’s supply depends primarily on just three countries—the US, Qatar, and Algeria—and fewer than 15 companies worldwide.
With so few sources, the helium market is particularly sensitive to disruptions—if a plant goes offline, or war breaks out, the element may suddenly be in short supply. And as Fitzkee noted, the price of helium has climbed rapidly in recent years, putting hospitals and research groups in a pinch.
The global helium market has experienced four shortages since 2006, says Phil Kornbluth, a helium consultant. And the price of helium has nearly doubled since 2020, from $7.57 per cubic meter to a historic high of $14 in 2023, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Some research labs, including Fitzkee’s, are now installing recycling systems for helium, and MRI manufacturers are making next-generation scanners that require less of it. But many of the world’s highest-tech industries—including computing and aerospace—will likely need even more helium in the future.
“At the end of the day, what’s happening is helium’s just getting more expensive,” says Ankesh Siddhantakar, a PhD student in industrial ecology at the University of Waterloo in Canada. “The era of cheap helium is probably gone.”
A high-tech need
Helium is the second element on the periodic table, which—as you may recall from high school chemistry class—means it has just two protons (and thus two electrons).
Thanks to their simple structure, helium atoms are some of the smallest and lightest, second only to hydrogen. They’re extremely stable and don’t easily react with other stuff, which makes them easy to incorporate into industrial or chemical processes.
One major use of liquid helium over the years has been to cool the magnets inside MRI scanners, which help doctors examine organs, muscles, and blood vessels. But the cost of helium has risen so much, and the supply has been so volatile, that hospitals are eager for other options.
MRI manufacturers including Philips and GE HealthCare now sell scanners that require much less helium than previous generations. That should help, though it will take years to upgrade the roughly 50,000 MRI scanners already installed today.
Other industries are finding ways around helium too. Welders have substituted argon or hydrogen on some jobs, while chemists have switched to hydrogen for gas chromatography, a process that allows them to separate mixtures.
But there’s no good alternative to helium for most applications, and the element is much harder to recycle when it’s used as a gas. In semiconductor fabs, for example, helium gas removes heat from around the silicon to prevent damage and shields it from unwanted reactions.
With rising demand for computing driven in part by AI, the US is investing heavily in building new fabs, which will likely drive more demand for helium. “There’s no question that chip manufacturing will be the biggest application within the coming years, if it isn’t already,” says Kornbluth.
Overall, Kornbluth says, the helium industry expects to see growth in the low single digits over the next few years.
Looking further out, Clarke predicts that most industries will eventually phase out nonessential uses of helium. Instead, they will use it primarily for cryogenic cooling or in cases where there’s no alternative. That includes quantum computers, rockets, fiber-optic cables, semiconductor fabs, particle accelerators, and certain fusion reactors.
“It’s something that, for a cost reason, all these new technologies have got to take into account,” Clarke says.
Given its importance to so many industries, Siddhantakar thinks helium should be a higher priority for those thinking about managing strategic resources. In a recent analysis, he found that the global supply chains for helium, lithium, and magnesium face similar risks.
“It is a key enabler for critical applications, and that’s one of the pieces that I think need to be more understood and appreciated,” Siddhantakar says.
A delicate balance
The helium we use today formed from the breakdown of radioactive materials millions of years ago and has been trapped in rocks below Earth’s surface ever since.
Helium is usually extracted from these underground reservoirs along with natural gas, as John Mattill explained in an article from our January 1986 issue: “Helium can be readily separated from the gas before combustion, but the lower the helium concentration, the higher the cost of doing so.”
Generally speaking, helium concentrations must be at least 0.3% for gas companies to bother with it. Such levels can be found in only a handful of countries including the US, Qatar, Algeria, Canada, and South Africa.
Helium shortages are not caused by a lack of helium, then, but the inability of producers in those few countries to deliver it to customers everywhere in a timely manner. That can happen for any number of reasons.
“It is a very global business, and any time a war breaks out somewhere, or anything like that, it tends to impact the helium business,” says Kornbluth.
Another challenge is that helium atoms are so light Earth’s gravity can’t hold onto them. They tend to just, well, float away, even escaping specially designed tanks. Up to 50% of helium we extract is lost before it can be used, according to a new analysis presented by Siddhantakar last week at the International Round Table on Materials Criticality.
Given all this, countries that need a lot of helium—Canada, China, Brazil, Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the UK are among the top importers—must constantly work to ensure a reliable supply. The US is one of the largest consumers of helium, but it’s also a leading producer.
For decades, the global helium market was closely tied to the US government, which began stockpiling helium in Texas in 1961 for military purposes. As Howland wrote in 1975, “The original justification of the federal helium conservation program was to store helium until a later time when it would be more essential and less available.”
But the US has slowly sold off much of its stockpile and is now auctioning off the remainder, with a final sale pending in the next few months. The consequences are not yet clear, though it seems likely that agencies such as NASA will have to pay more for helium in the future. As Christopher Thomas Freeburn wrote in a 1997 article titled “Save the Helium,” “By eliminating the reserve, the federal government … has placed itself at the mercies of the market.”
Customers everywhere are still overwhelmingly dependent on the US and Qatar, which together produce more than 75% of all helium the world uses. But the US has produced and exported significantly less in the past decade, while demand from US consumers rose by 40%, according to the USGS’s Robert Goodin.
Eager to fill the void, new countries are now starting to produce helium, and a flurry of companies are exploring potential projects around the world. Four helium plants opened last year in Canada, and one started up in South Africa.
Russia is set to open a massive new plant that will soon supply helium to China, thereby edging out Algeria as the world’s third-largest producer.
“Russia is going to become the number-three producer as early as 2025, and they’ll end up accounting for a quarter of the world’s supply within the next five years,” says Kornbluth.
Qatargas in Qatar is opening a fourth plant, which—together with Russia’s new facility—should expand global helium supply by about 50% in the next few years, he adds.
Some companies are now considering sites where they could extract helium without treating it as a by-product of natural gas. Helium One is exploring several such sources in Tanzania.
Will it be enough?
Back in 1975, Howland described the helium market as “an example of the false starts, inefficiencies, and economic pitfalls we must avoid to wisely preserve our exhaustible resources.”
He also predicted the US would use up much of its known helium reserves by the turn of the century. But the US still has enough helium in natural-gas reservoirs to last 150 more years, according to a recent USGS analysis.
“As with a lot of other things, it’s going to be about the sustainable management of this resource,” says Siddhantakar.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/25/1088930/global-helium-market-semiconductors/?utm_source=pocket_saves
Oleblue
4 months ago
Helium Reserves By Country and Biggest Helium Manufacturers
Sana Ijaz
Wed, Jul 12, 2023
In this comprehensive article, we will discuss countries with the biggest helium reserves and their current production capacity, as some nations aren't capable of exploiting their reserves as of now. We will also understand the usage of helium gas in crucial industries like medicine, space, technology, and telecommunication, among others. If you want to know the key names in the global helium industry, read Helium Reserves By Country And 5 Biggest Helium Manufacturers.
Helium reserves by country and biggest helium manufacturers represent a micro-niche in mining, mainly owned by the United States, Qatar, and Algeria. Such diversity in helium reserves by country stems from helium's production and refining process. Despite being the second most abundant element in the Universe, helium remains a rare element in the mining industry due to its pressure requirements. Helium is separated from natural gas by liquefying its components at low temperatures and high pressure because otherwise, it escapes the Earth's crust and gets released into space.
Studies say that until now, the discovery of helium deposits has never been intentional, as it is mostly located during oil and natural gas extraction. It is also a by-product of uranium and thorium decay and co-exists with other gases in the crust. Owing to its rarity, there are a few pure-play helium gas mining companies working at a grand scale.
One of these biggest helium manufacturers is Pennsylvania-based Air Products and Chemicals Inc (NYSE:APD), which offers liquid and compressed helium of various purity levels. Since Air Products and Chemicals Inc (NYSE:APD) has a broad network of storage and transfer facilities, the company is able to work across the world. Air Products and Chemicals Inc (NYSE:APD) 's main product line includes atmospheric gases, helium being one of them, and their related equipment, i.e., liquefying cabinets. It is one of the largest helium producing companies and has a current market cap of $64.116 billion.
Another noteworthy name amongst helium gas mining companies is Ireland-based Linde Plc (NYSE:LIN), a natural gas and engineering company with a current market cap of $179.604 billion. Linde Plc (NYSE:LIN) provides high-grade helium of up to 99% purity through its proven extraction technology. Linde Plc (NYSE:LIN) operates one of the largest helium plants in Ulysses (Ireland), Kansas, and Qatar.
Likewise, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) mines natural gas, a source of helium. Being one of the largest helium companies, it operates the LaBarge facility in Wyoming. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is responsible for providing 20% share in global helium production and has over 80 years of helium supply remaining. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is also the largest liquid helium producer and boasts a current market cap of $433.674 billion at the time of writing this article.
If you want to include Earth's valuable resources in your investment portfolio, we have already covered the 10 Best Natural Gas Stocks to Buy Now; give them a read to make smart decisions.
Which Country Produces the Most Helium In The World?
The United States was at the forefront of helium production by country in 2022. As of 2022, the country's annual helium production totaled 75 million cubic meters, equating to approximately 46% of the global helium output. The total worldwide production of helium in 2022, standing at around 160 million cubic meters, indicated a substantial contribution by the United States.
The vast reserves of natural gas in Texas and Oklahoma are abundant with helium, and their extraction processes have made the United States the largest helium producing country in the world. Also, strategic helium storage and distribution facilities, such as the Federal Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas, enhance the country's capacity to maintain its position as the largest helium producing country in the world.
However, after continuous helium exploitation in the U.S. since the early 1910s, its status amongst helium reserves by country has switched places with Qatar.
Which Sector is the Largest Consumer Of Helium?
The global helium market is set to reach $5.03 billion this year because of its broad spectrum usage. While most think helium is used mainly in party balloons, NASA is the single biggest buyer of helium. Annually, NASA consumes approximately 75 million cubic feet of helium, primarily used in rocket propulsion.
Helium's low boiling point, low density, and the fact that it doesn't become radioactive make it an invaluable commodity for NASA. Its principal application lies in cooling liquid hydrogen and oxygen, used extensively as rocket fuel. As these fuels must be kept at incredibly low temperatures to remain liquid, this task is achieved with helium's superior cooling capabilities. Additionally, gaseous helium is also used to pressurize the fuel tanks of liquid-fueled rockets, ensuring the fuel is pushed toward the engines in zero-gravity conditions.
Which Country Has The Largest Reserve Of Helium In The World?
Qatar currently has the world's largest helium reserves, standing at 10 billion cubic meters. However, the reserve scale does not directly correlate with extraction activity or production level. Because despite its vast reserves, Qatar has yet to fully capitalize on its helium mining potential. The United States had the highest helium production by country in 2022; it has comparatively fewer helium reserves than Qatar.
This status quo between the largest helium producing country in the world and the highest helium production by country in 2022 reflects the dynamics that underlie the global helium market, where factors like technological capabilities, economic viability, political stability, and market demand determine actual production levels.
What Is Helium Used For?
According to data from 2022, the United States exhibited a substantial demand for Grade-A helium, with the estimated consumption totaling 43 million cubic meters, or equivalently 1.5 billion cubic feet.
According to USGS, helium consumption was dominated, in order of decreasing volume, by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), lifting gas, analytical and laboratory applications, electronics, and semiconductor manufacturing, among others.
MRI is reliant on superconducting magnets, which need to be cooled to extremely low temperatures using liquid helium, hence, making helium indispensable in this sector.
CONTINUED:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/helium-reserves-country-biggest-helium-031157836.html
Oleblue
4 months ago
The U.S. just sold its helium stockpile. Here’s why the medical world is worried.
MRI machines need thousands of liters of liquid helium to function. Health care workers say they can’t afford any disruptions to the helium supply chain.
A plant operator at the Federal Helium Reserve walks through the Federal Crude Helium Enrichment Unit near Amarillo, Texas, on July 6, 2011.
The Federal Helium Reserve includes over 400 miles of pipeline — stretching from Amarillo, Texas, to the panhandle of Oklahoma to Kansas.Joyce Marshall / Tribune News Service
Jan. 25, 2024, 5:03 PM EST
By Caroline Hopkins
On Thursday, the U.S. government sold the Federal Helium Reserve, a massive underground stockpile based in Amarillo, Texas, that supplies up to 30% of the country’s helium.
Once the deal is finalized, the buyer — which will likely be the highest bidder, the industrial gas company Messer — will claim some 425 miles of pipelines spanning Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, plus about 1 billion cubic feet of the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.
Regulatory and logistical issues with the facility threaten a temporary shutdown as it passes from public to private ownership, and hospital supply chain experts worry the sale could have serious consequences for health care down the road — especially when it comes to MRIs.
To be sure, a Federal Helium Reserve shutdown wouldn’t mean that MRIs would suddenly power down across the country, said Soumi Saha, senior vice president of government affairs at Premier Inc., which contracts with helium suppliers on behalf of 4,400 hospitals in the U.S. “But we are stressing about this shortage. From a health care perspective, MRI machines are the No. 1 concern.”
American patients undergo an estimated 40 million MRI scans each year to help diagnose cancer, brain and spinal cord injuries, strokes and heart conditions. The superconductive magnet-powered imaging machines give doctors clear, high-resolution images of areas inside the body they can’t see on X-rays and CT scans. But without liquid helium, the Earth’s coldest element, MRI machines can’t keep their magnets cool enough to generate these images.
The sale of the government’s stockpile of the nonrenewable element could exacerbate an existing supply shortage, Saha said.
A number of factors could trigger a shutdown of the facility that could last as long as three years, said Rich Gottwald, CEO of the Compressed Gas Association, a trade group that represents companies, including Messer, that buy up helium and sell it to hospitals, semiconductor manufacturers, NASA and other customers.
Medical world concerned after U.S. sells helium stockpile
JAN. 29, 202403:57
The facility spans three states, each with its own laws. The federal government didn’t need to reconcile state-specific rules, but a private buyer would, he said. Another issue is that helium must be enriched before it can be used, and a separate system is needed to do that. That enrichment system isn’t part of the federal reserve, but is privately owned by four private companies, including Messer; unlike the pipelines and helium itself, it wasn’t for sale.
“A new owner will need to create some sort of lease to use the enrichment unit, or build their own unit to enrich the helium,” Gottwald said. “There’s a whole host of issues that need to be resolved and the concern is, until they’re resolved, the system will need to shut down.”
In a letter in October urging the White House to delay the sale, the CGA and four other trade associations laid out what they see as the most critical issues at the facility. Two of the trade associations behind the letter, AdvaMed and the Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance, represent MRI manufacturers.
“Timely, critical patient care would suffer if helium supplies constricted further,” Scott Whitaker, AdvaMed’s CEO, wrote in an email to NBC News. “AdvaMed urges the White House to delay the sale and privatization of the Federal Helium Reserve until outstanding issues identified by the Compressed Gas Association are resolved.”
The sale has been in the works for more than a decade. Congress first mandated it through the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013. It was initially supposed to occur in 2021, but a series of delays — in part due to the same logistical and regulatory issues threatening shutdowns today — postponed the auction to Thursday.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson from the U.S. Interior Department said the sale would not constrict helium supply.
“Sale of the reserve to a private party, as Congressionally mandated by law, is not expected to meaningfully change the availability of helium,” the spokesperson wrote.
Other sources of helium
There’s a finite amount of helium on Earth. The largest reserves are in massive underground pockets in parts of Algeria, Qatar, Russia and the U.S.
While the Texas stockpile is the largest source of helium in the U.S., it’s not the only one. There are a number of smaller, privately owned facilities — some of which are in Colorado and Wyoming — according to Gottwald.
Sourcing helium inside the U.S. or from Canada is the easiest and cheapest option. Transit time is an important factor: If the shipment takes longer than 35 to 48 days, the liquid helium will evaporate.
The two other biggest helium reserves are in Qatar and Russia.
“Shutting down the U.S. helium reserve would force a situation where we would have to increase our reliance on foreign sources, like Qatar and Russia,” Saha said. “Given the ongoing geopolitical concerns and tensions in those regions and shipping delays, it would increase concerns around potential shortages on U.S. soil.”
According to Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, the U.S. hasn’t been able to tap into Russia’s helium supply because of strained trade relations and the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have forced Qatar to send liquified natural gas shipments, which contain helium, around the Cape of Good Hope, a route that adds at least 20 days to the journey.
Helium in health and science
Helium was already in short supply before the government sale. Currently, Kornbluth said, three out of five U.S. helium suppliers are rationing the element to prioritize life-or-death uses like MRI machines ahead of less-essential helium uses, like keeping party balloons afloat.
Across the University of California system, for instance, which includes 10 research campuses and six medical schools, the shortage has already hit scientists.
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“We’ve been on and off allocation for a while from our helium suppliers,” said Jeremy Meadows, its executive director of strategic sourcing. “There’s a priority of allocation where health care goes first and research goes second.” This has been difficult for scientists whose laboratories use magnetic imaging for medical research, he said.
“Our helium-dependent research is only growing,” he added. Should the available supply decline further, he said, “I just don’t know how we position ourselves to get that supply.”
In a letter to the U.S. government last spring, the University of California’s chief procurement officer, Paul Williams, lamented that the cost of helium had already increased more than 400% in five years.
Further supply constriction, he wrote, “leaves the research and medical communities at a greater risk.”
For instance, the University of California has a powerful helium-reliant magnetoencephalography, or MEG, scanner, that doctors use to plan pediatric brain operations. Statewide, Williams said, there were only two of these scanners.
“If it runs out of helium, it will require multiple weeks to recool, delaying surgeries, or, in some circumstances, compelling surgeons to operate without detailed brain maps,” he said, adding that the MEG scanner has barely averted shutdown dozens of times over the past 10 years.
MRIs of the future
MRI manufacturers have responded to the uncertain future of helium with their own solutions. Both Philips and Siemens Healthineers recently started selling alternatives to traditional MRI machines, which hold 1,700 to 1,800 liters of liquid helium and require constant replenishment. Some models now require just 1 to 7 liters of helium and don’t need any replenishment. Spokespeople from both companies touted these newer models as cost-effective for hospitals, especially if helium prices keep rising.
But an MRI machine is a long-term investment, and many hospitals have been counting on their current, helium-dependent MRI equipment to last years, if not decades, more.
“Using the same magnet for 20 or 30 years is not unheard of,” said Dr. Scott Reeder, chair of the University of Wisconsin’s radiology department.
Premier’s Saha said uptake of lower-helium MRIs has been slow.
“There are capital costs associated with removing the old MRIs and installing new equipment, plus the manufacturers don’t have the capacity to switch out all MRI machines at 6,000 U.S.-based hospitals overnight,” she said. “There’s time required for that, and you can’t take off every MRI machine in the country, because that would impact patient care.”
Still, the uncertain helium supply has brought an uptick in interest in these newer models, Saha said. “We’re seeing health care providers trying to get ahead of this by inquiring about MRI systems that use minimal to no helium,” she said.
As the health care industry worries about what the Federal Helium Reserve sale could mean for meeting the existing MRI demand, Reeder said the demand keeps rising, too.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-just-sold-helium-stockpile-s-medical-world-worried-rcna134785
Oleblue
4 months ago
Drilling for helium in the woods of Lake County
A precious element that’s new to Minnesota mining
| February 22, 2024
By Janna Goerdt, Staff Writer
If all goes as Thomas Abraham-James hopes, northern Minnesota may one day produce a supply of a critical element that is needed world-wide.
It’s not the palladium, platinum, copper, or other precious metals that mining companies are trying to extract. This product is lighter than air, colorless, odorless, tasteless, but still necessary for a wide range of high-end scientific applications. It’s in short supply across the globe, with most of it currently produced in Qatar and Algeria.
Abraham-James is mining for helium.
“Fingers crossed,” Abraham-James said on a recent warm, sunny day at the drill site, located off an old logging road in the forest between Babbitt and Isabella, in Lake County. Drillers brought in from the western half of the United States, where drilling for gas is common, were working alongside local contractors to punch a closed hole through 1,800 feet of igneous rock, seeking a large pocket of trapped gas that was accidentally discovered more than a decade ago.
The drilling rig rumbled in the distance as Abraham-James gave tours of the site. A native of Portugal, Abraham-James is the president and CEO of Pulsar Helium, Inc. He and a partner essentially invented the helium exploration industry. And, to everyone’s surprise, northern Minnesota might prove to be a rich mining ground.
“This is our flagship,” Abraham-James said. “Should this be successful, I will be spending a lot of time in Minnesota.”
There have been thousands of exploratory bore holes drilled throughout northern Minnesota. But this hole, and this hole alone, tapped into what geologists believe to be a large pocket of helium and carbon dioxide gas. In 2011, geologist Dr. Phil Larson was working for Duluth Metals. The company was probing the ground between Babbitt and Isabella for platinum and palladium, drilling a series of mineral exploratory bore holes, some more than 3,000 feet deep. All had been unremarkable, until they got to hole number six, and the diamond core drilling rig reached 1,783 feet deep.
First of all, a chunk of bedrock nine feet long shot out the top of the drilling rig and disappeared into the boreal forest. That doesn’t usually happen.
And then came a screaming rush of some kind of gas that sounded like a jet engine. It’s not unusual to encounter small pockets of gas when drilling for minerals in northern Minnesota, Larson said, but they usually bleed off in a few hours.
This pocket of gas was still spewing out gas four days later, with no signs of abating, Larson said. Standing next to it was “terrifying,” he said, because no one had any idea what the gas was.
Larson didn’t know it yet, but what they had tapped into was a first in Minnesota, if not the entire United States.
He dashed off to a Merhar’s Ace Hardware in Ely and returned with a plastic funnel, some vinyl tubing, duct tape and a bucket. He took some samples, sent a sample off to be tested to be sure there was no risk of explosion, and a few days later they were able to seal the hole. When Larson took a closer look at what the gas samples contained, he noticed that they included 10.5 percent helium. He briefly wondered if that was a high percentage, but then, because none of the Duluth Metals bore holes contained the platinum or palladium they were looking for, he shelved the report and moved on.
Fast forward to 2017, when Larson walked up to the Pulsar Helium booth at a mining conference in Canada. He had written down everything he could remember about that one odd bore hole with the 10.5 helium percentage, and he asked Abraham James if he might be interested.
“He kept his poker face pretty well,” Larson remembers.
Abraham-James thought it sounded “too good to be true,” he said. Pulsar Helium is currently trying to develop a helium project in Greenland that flows about .8 percent helium, Abraham-James said. According to the American Chemical Society, helium is also commercially viable to extract from natural gas when its concentration is .3 percent. Given those numbers, the Babbitt area bore hole has an astronomically high concentration.
But once Abraham James heard about the geology of the Bald Eagle intrusion sur rounding the drill site, it made perfect sense. “This is a Goldilocks zone for helium accumulation,” he said.
Thus began years of organizing, lining up investors and experienced gas well drillers, and figuring out the permits needed to drill for a valuable gas in a state where that had never been done before. Minnesotans are used to drilling for rock and mineral samples that stay put.
“It was a long and complicated process to pull a mineral lease to redrill this,” Larson said.
The mineral lease is privately held, and Pulsar is working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for leases, and the Minnesota Department of Health to guard against any groundwater contamination during the drilling process.
It all came down to 7 a.m. on Friday, February 2, when the single rig drill began chewing into the earth, just 50 feet away from the original bore hole. Abraham-James said he unexpectedly teared up a bit.
“After all the years of work, of traveling away from my family, of starting from scratch, of being the first to try this,” watching the drill spin was an emotional experience, he said.
The drillers have never punched a hole through this kind of rock in search of gas before, Anderson said. Because of that, they don’t know exactly how long it will take, though they hope results start to come in by the end of February.
The drilling rig was brought in from Montana, and it drills through the troctolite (a type of igneous rock) using a carbide-tipped drill bit that spews out a high-pressure fluid. It operates on the same principal as pushing a garden hose into the ground and turning it on, said mud engineer Bruce Butler, who works for Mountain Mud Service and Supply in Gillette, WY. He was monitoring the rig on site to make sure it was flowing properly.
“This is brand-new in Minnesota,” Butler said. “That’s why I volunteered for this. I like to do new things.”
The physical material that emerges from the drilling hole looks and feels like small pebbles. But Pulsar is interested in the gas they expect to encounter about 1,800 feet below the surface. The drilling rig is a closed-loop system, with gas readings for hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and other gasses being taken every 100 seconds. Samples of any gasses coming out of the hole can also be stored for future analysis.
The world needs more helium, said Cliff Cain, the CEO of Edelgas Group, with offices on Wall Street in New York City. Cain was on-site near Babbitt to monitor the drilling.
“There’s a shortage of helium, and high demand,” Cain said. “It’s a critical commodity for many applications. Maybe Minnesota will be able to help with that shortage.”
No one yet knows what lies below the drilling rig. But Pulsar has conducted some passive seismic surveys of the area, and they “suggest that we are looking at a reservoir with the potential for regional scale,” Abraham James said. Right now the company is trying to replicate and confirm the results of Larson’s 2011 samples, the ones collected with a kitchen funnel and some tubing, the ones that indicated a very high concentration of helium.
“We know nothing about this cavity; we were able to collect zero information,” Larson said. He is now working as an advisor for Pulsar Helium.
“At the end of the day, Mother Nature is in charge,” Abraham-James said. “Now, we’ll be nervously pacing for two weeks.”
But if those encouraging results can be confirmed, then the company will contemplate its next steps, Abraham James said. Possibilities include building an on-site collection plant, with the helium hauled away in trucks, he said.
Pulsar is also committed to keeping the drilling site as low-impact to the environment as possible, and also keeping the project transparent, Abraham James said. That includes opening the drilling site to local media, and even the general public. When Larson signed on as an advisor to the project, he suggested having such tours, to head off any potential rumors about what unusual drilling was going on in the woods.
As Larson was dropping off one tour group at the Babbitt Municipal Center, he bumped into a local who was interested in that drilling site he had heard about, so Larson asked if he wanted to join the next tour. After getting fitted with a safety vest, hard hat and safety glasses, off they went, back to the first potential helium mine in Minnesota.
Janna Goerdt lives and runs a farm near Embarrass. When she isn’t working on the farm, mothering her twin boys, or writing, she likes to prowl the new non-fiction shelf at the Virginia Public Library. She can be reached at janna@htfnews.us.
Why is there helium in the ground near Babbitt?
Helium is present in all stars, where hydrogen atoms smash together, forming helium atoms and releasing energy.
Helium is also created in the earth’s crust, as the radioactive elements uranium and thorium decay. These atoms of helium, which are lighter than air, are constantly migrating up through the earth’s surface, where they slip through the atmosphere and off into space, unnoticed.
But the geology between Babbitt and Isabella, where Pulsar Helium, Inc. is currently exploring for helium, is right for trapping those atoms of helium and allowing them to collect for the past billion years or so, said Pulsar CEO Thomas Abraham-James.
The impermeable rock of the Duluth Complex is sitting on top of the suspected pocket of helium, and the mid-continental rift has been stable for a long time, with no fault lines or cracks that would allow the helium to escape. These conditions have created the “Goldilocks zone” for helium accumulation, Abraham-James said.
Why do we need helium?
Although helium is the second most abundant element in the universe (after hydrogen), its presence was unknown to science until 1868. It occurs naturally as an odorless, tasteless, colorless gas that is lighter than air and has no known biological role on Earth.
However, it has become essential for many scientific uses. It is used in cryogenics, to make fiber optics, semi-conductors, MRI scanners, for welding and other uses in the aerospace industry, and to keep satellite instruments cool. It is used to fill weather balloons, in helium-neon gas lasers to scan barcodes at checkout systems, and new helium-ion microscopes that offer better image resolution than scanning electron microscopes.
A mixture of helium and oxygen is used by deep-sea divers and others working in pressurized conditions.
Source: The Royal Society of Chemistry
https://www.hometownfocus.us/articles/drilling-for-helium-in-the-woods-of-lake-county/
Oleblue
4 months ago
Pulsar Has Spudded the Jetstream #1 Appraisal Well at the Topaz Helium Project
Pulsar Helium Inc.
Mon, Feb 5, 20242 min read
VANCOUVER BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 5, 2024 / Pulsar Helium Inc. (TSXV:PLSR)(FRA:Y3K) ("Pulsar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that drilling the Jetstream #1 appraisal well* at the Topaz helium project in Minnesota has commenced, with a spud date of February 2nd. Jetstream #1 is located approximately 15m (50ft) from the original discovery well LOD-6 that hit free gas with a concentration of 10.5% helium.
Pulsar's President & CEO, Thomas Abraham-James commented:
"The Jetstream #1 appraisal well has been spudded. It is a significant moment for the Company, and I am very proud of the team's efforts to get here. Our objective is to replicate the original discovery of 10.5% helium, conduct extensive down-hole testing, and persist deeper into the ground to determine what else may be down there. Our meticulous planning has paid off and all is going according to schedule, we have also been blessed with glorious weather conditions. We look forward to keeping the market informed with our progress."
Jetstream #1 will be drilled to a depth of 686m (2,250ft) with contingency in place to extend to 762m (2,500ft). A mass spectrometer will be onsite providing gas composition every 100 seconds with gas samples to be collected when zones of helium gas response are encountered. Upon reaching total depth, a comprehensive suite of open hole wireline logs will be acquired by Baker Hughes. Following the wireline data acquisition, the well will be completed, and the rig will be released and demobilised. A well testing package will then mobilise and rig up on the Jetstream #1 well and execute a flow testing and pressure build-up program and collect pressurised gas sample data.
On the spud date, the Jetstream #1 site was visited by a film crew from Reuters, collecting footage and conducting interviews that will be utilized in their upcoming Global Health 2024 documentary series. In addition, key local stakeholders including government officials, local residents, contractors and potential customers will be touring site this week.
About Pulsar Helium Inc.
Pulsar Helium Inc. is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR. It is dedicated to defining and developing primary helium assets. Its portfolio consists of the Topaz helium project in Minnesota, USA and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences identified at each. Topaz is the Company's flagship, having been drilled and flowing a remarkably high helium concentration of 10.5%. For further information visit https://pulsarhelium.com and follow us on X https://twitter.com/pulsarhelium?lang=en and LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc.
On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc.
"Thomas Abraham-James"
President, CEO and Director
Further Information:
Thomas Abraham-James President,
CEO and Director Pulsar Helium Inc.
connect@pulsarhelium.com
+ 1 (604) 599-0310
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements") that relate to the Company's current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result", "are expected to", "expects", "will continue", "is anticipated", "anticipates", "believes", "estimated", "intends", "plans", "forecast", "projection", "strategy", "objective" and "outlook") are not historical facts and may be forward-looking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. In particular and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to the anticipated drill date of Jetstream #1, the cost to drill Jetstream #1 may be higher than expected, the prospective nature of the Topaz area, achievement of the Company's business objectives going forward and other statements that are not historical facts. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release.
Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward- looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to Pulsar may be unsuccessful in drilling commercially productive wells; drill costs may be higher than estimates; delays in the commencement of drilling, and other factors set forth under "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements and Market and Industry Data" and "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them, or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Any forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
SOURCE: Pulsar Helium Inc.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pulsar-spudded-jetstream-1-appraisal-110000310.html
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