(Sorry I missed this, Leslie!)
Pulsar Helium Inc., a small Canadian company, struck gold in Minnesota when the drillers discovered helium:
Pulsar Helium Inc., a Canadian-based company, announced in a news release on Thursday that its team encountered gases with concentrations of up to 12.4% helium when its drilling rig reached a total depth of 2,200 at the Topaz Project drill site. Helium concentrations above 0.3% are considered economically viable.Thomas Abraham-James, Pulsar’s president and CEO, said he is “delighted” about the “outstanding result.””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,” Abraham-James said.
There could be so much more helium at the spot, too. The discovery thrilled the energy industry because America’s supply has gone down:
But some industry groups, like the Compressed Gas Association (CGA), worry the U.S. supply of the finite gas is flagging. The federal government is selling off its Federal Helium Reserve System, which sprawls across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and supplies 20% of the U.S. market. The CGA warned in a letter last month that the sale “could lead to severe disruptions in the U.S. helium supply chain.”Abraham-James said nearly all helium is a byproduct of natural gas production, but companies looking for the fossil fuel don’t prioritize the lesser gas. Abraham-James does and first chased helium in Tanzania as part of a nascent industry that he said is roughly a decade old.Most in the sector, he said, look to former natural gas fields. The discovery of the Minnesota reservoir — in a state with no natural gas production — was an accident.
Helium can come in handy. It helps “supercool magnets in MRI machines.” It helps manufacture “semiconductor chips that power modern technology.”
The space industry, which has done much lately, could use helium by cooling “liquid fuels and hot gases separate inside a rocket.”
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