Thomas Abraham-James had a pretty good hunch that helium could be found beneath the surface in northeastern Minnesota.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Abraham-James, Pulsar Helium Inc., president and chief executive officer said from his home in Portugal. “Northeastern Minnesota has some of the most unique geology in the world. The Duluth Complex is in pretty much every single geology textbook around the world. It’s quite famous, so it doesn’t surprise me. Northern Minnesota has some of the most unique geological attributes of anywhere in the world.”
Pulsar Helium’s hunch was correct.
Pulsar Helium this winter found helium in a 2,200 foot-deep well drilled near Babbitt within the Duluth Complex.
The helium find comes about 13 years after Duluth Metals struck helium in a drill hole about 50 feet away from the Pulsar Helium well while performing exploratory drilling for copper, nickel, cobalt, and platinum group metals.
That discovery peaked Pulsar Helium’s interest, Abraham-James said.
“We were made aware of that discovery and it was very compelling because of the high concentration of helium,” Abraham-James said. “We then obtained the mineral rights and the first thing that we wanted to do was to get the geophysical data so we could start to assess is this an isolated gas pocket or something larger? So we did that in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and it all suggested something larger. The next year we had the confidence to re-drill the hole and replicate it and it was successful. It was a conservative approach around that original discovery.”
Since the Pulsar Helium discovery, analysis of helium from the hole has been all positive.
“We’re really excited to be honest,” Abraham-James said. “The last piece of data from the hole that we drilled from the Jetstream #1 well confirms the high concentration of helium, so that’s really pleasing. And we received the helium concentration between 8.7 and 15.5 percent, so that really puts it firmly as one of the highest concentrations helium wells ever drilled on a global basis.”
Helium from the well is coming to the surface naturally, Abraham-James said.
“It’s really like opening a soda can and the gas comes out—it’s a bit like that,” Abraham-James said. “So that’s very pleasing.”
Pressure from the bottom of the hole is also positive, he said.
“At the bottom of the hole, we’re able to tell what the pressure is,” Abraham-James said. “It’s 162 psi, so that’s like roughly four or five times the pressure that you might put in a car tire. So imagine trying to over-pressure your tire by five times. That’s really a decent pressure.”
The well also rebounds to 70 percent pressure within an hour of post-flow shut-in, Abraham-James said.
“All of the data is very positive and that now gives us the confidence to move forward,” Abraham-James said.
Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown said he’s pleased with the project progress.
“I’m thrilled with the news from Pulsar that the highly concentrated helium deposit in our region is also a large volume,” Hauschild said. “With my recent legislation establishing a helium framework, this means the possibility for local royalties to our counties and schools could make a very real impact. That’s the way it should be, we should be the ones to benefit from our own resources.”
Rep. Roger Skraba, R-Ely, said the helium discovery is a big deal for northeastern Minnesota.
“It’s exciting,” Skraba said. “I’m very excited about it. I’m upbeat and working with everyone involved. They’re following all the rules and we are trying to write language that doesn’t hurt them and stay in contact with them.”
There’s more work, drilling and analysis to be done yet.
However, commercial development of the project would open up a new natural resources industry in Minnesota.
“We’re here for that very reason,” Abraham-James said. “Sometime next month we anticipate the independent resource recorder to give us a volume calculation with a number of different scenarios. What’s the 90 percent chance of success number, the 50 percent chance of success number, the ten percent chance of success number? They’ll give you a range of the likely volumes of range of gas that’s down there based on the drilling and also the geophysics that we’ve acquired as well.”
The intention is to deepen the existing hole and bore additional holes, Abraham-James said.
A couple of additional wells a half-mile or a mile away would also be drilled to determine the extent of the helium resource, he said.
As with the existing hole, the additional holes would be drilled on private land, Abraham-James said.
Pulsar Helium drilled on private land because it was able to obtain leases on the land, he said.
Until hydrocarbon extraction legislation was passed during the 2024 Minnesota legislative session, the state didn’t have the ability to issue leases for hydrocarbon extraction on state land.
“Our view is we are not targeting anything specifically because of royalties or anything like that,”
Abraham-James said. “It is what it is at the end of the day. It’s guided by geology.”
The U.S. is the world’s number one consumer of helium, he said.
There’s some domestic helium production in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming and other areas of the southwest, Abraham-James said.
Commercial production of helium in Minnesota would be a huge benefit to the nation, he said.
“There’s a worldwide shortage,” Abraham-James said. “Helium imports into the U.S.A. have increased. It’s quite significant. Having a domestic source is quite important as well. Helium doesn’t like to be transported. Helium likes to leak, so if it comes from overseas there’s a good chance you may not get 100 percent of the product. When there’s a domestic source you don’t have that concern. And there’s also the geopolitical concern that comes with it as well in withholding exports of strategic commodities.”
Helium is inert, non-toxic, non-flammable, and non-hazardous, according to Pulsar Helium.
Helium has a variety of uses including computer hard drives, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, vehicle air conditioning systems,, semi-conductor fabrication, fiber optic cables, as a coolant in nuclear reactors, arc welding, lead detection in the hulls of ships, and high pressure equipment, according to Pulsar Helium.
Helium is also becoming more important as artificial intelligence technology advances, Abraham-James said.
Semi-conductor fabrication in Minnesota, the use of helium by Mayo Clinic for medical use along with a number of gas distributors, mean an in-state market exists for helium along with national demand, Abraham-James said.
Helium is worth 100 times more than natural gas, though the helium market is limited as compared to natural gas, Abraham-James said.
Commercial production at the Topaz project near Babbitt is still a ways down the road, but is showing promise, he said.
“We’re here for that very reason,” Abraham-James said. “There’s a little bit work that has to be done. We have resource analysis next month, a little more drilling, the engineering studies and economic analysis and if all looks positive we’d be looking to realize its production potential. If all the planets align and everything’s exceptional, maybe sometime possibly next year. But there’s a few steps we need to go through before we can answer that question.”
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