Helium-3, a form of the rare gas that sells for 140,000 times the price of normal helium, has been found at explorer Gold Hydrogen’s South Australia tenement.
A week after Gold Hydrogen confirmed world-class levels of helium on the Yorke Peninsula, new results from Oxford University (England) show elevated levels of Helium-3, prices for which exceed USD $2500 per litre (or USD $18.7 million per kg), compared to less than 2 cents per litre for regular Helium-4.
Helium-3 is a rare isotope, indispensable in advanced fields such as quantum computing, fusion energy, and nuclear material monitoring.
It is predominantly found in the US in volcanic geographies, but lunar mining has been touted to try and boost the stocks of a gas which has high neutron absorption capability and plays an essential role in neutron detection and future technologies.
The Oxford tests measured the presence of elevated levels of Helium-3 (³He) within crustal basement samples taken from Gold Hydrogen’s Ramsay 2 well at depths from 280m to 1000 meters.
Helium-3 was confirmed up to 901 PPT — positioning the find at the high end of known land gas systems. In the air, Helium is found at 7 PPT.
Just a week ago, Gold Hydrogen reported CSIRO data showed the highest helium purities ever sampled by the Government’s scientific agency, ranging from 20% to 25% purity on an air corrected basis (50,000 times the concentration in the atmosphere). Gold Hydrogen itself has recorded Helium-4 at 36.9% purity on an air corrected basis in the separator at the well head.
The Gold Hydrogen chairman and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, commented:
‘’This result confirming Helium-3 is a material development for our Ramsay Project.
‘Superpowers China, Russia and the United States are planning to go to the moon to mine for Helium-3 – and although we are at an early stage and more exploration and analysis needs to happen, we have found it here in South Australia which could be incredibly exciting not just for the state but Australia as a whole.’’
Gold Hydrogen has been in preliminary discussions with leading US scientific and research organizations, some of who are being funded by the US Department of Energy to advance technology for the separation of Helium-3 and Helium-4 in land-based systems.
The potential need for increased amounts of Helium-3 has been boosted by successful fusion energy tests from Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems, backed by major stakeholders including the US Energy Department and the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures3.
Experts have even postured that a single 1 GW fusion plant may require up to 100 kg of Helium-3 annually, representing a potential market value of US$1.4 billion.
Gold Hydrogen is preparing advanced drilling and exploration designs to optimize extraction of both natural hydrogen and helium. The Ramsay Project currently has Best Estimate Prospective Resources of 1.3 Billion kg for Natural Hydrogen and 41 BcF (billion cubic feet) for Helium.
As well, recent 2D seismic work indicated that Gold Hydrogen was not yet drilling in the best places for hydrogen and helium. Its initial wells replicated 100-year-old tests in which oil and gas prospectors found hydrogen by mistake.
Gold Hydrogen managing director Neil McDonald called the latest find ‘’ground-breaking’’.
“Helium-3 is an incredibly rare and valuable gas in high demand from the world’s largest countries and companies. With advances in quantum computing and, especially, nuclear fusion, there’s an urgent need for new Helium-3 supplies.
‘’Although we are at an early stage and more exploration and analysis needs to happen, to confirm Helium-3 within a land-based system, as we have at the Ramsay Project, is very exciting. It could have strategic significance.’’
The company was formed to hunt for natural hydrogen and has confirmed purity levels up to 95.8% at the first hydrogen-specific wells in the country. With hydrogen producing extremely low emissions, it is increasingly seen as a key energy source in the drive to net zero.
Drone footage of the Ramsay Project is available for media use here: https://youtu.be/nBJsjCy2UII
