Lab results show significant helium levels at drill site that would be Minnesota's first

Pulsar Helium is a step closer to building Minnesota's first helium drilling operation after the company said lab tests confirmed a potent concentration of the gas from a well at an exploration site near Babbitt.

There is a national shortage of helium, an essential gas for space exploration, semiconductor chip manufacturing and some medical imaging. Yet extraction for helium alone is rare, as it's usually a byproduct of natural gas drilling.

The Canada-based Pulsar said Thursday 11 samples sent to a pair of labs measured helium contents of up to 13.8%, far above what CEO Tom Abraham-James said is a 0.3% threshold for when helium projects are potentially economically viable.

Pulsar had tested gas on site from its appraisal well in late February, finding concentrations of up to 12.4% helium. But the company sent off additional samples to Isotech Laboratories and Smart Gas Sciences for another look.

The 13.8% figure is more reliable and more accurate than readings taken on site with a "quadrupole mass spectrometer," the news release read.

Cliff Cain, CEO of the Edelgas Group, an international gas-advising firm working with Pulsar, said in the news release the results "are the highest helium concentrations that we have ever seen."

Duluth Metals found the reservoir by chance in 2011 when the company was searching for platinum and palladium and hit a pocket of pressurized gas that testing identified had 10.5% helium.

A member of the team later connected with Abraham-James, leading to the Pulsar exploration to confirm those long-ago results. Abraham-James said in February if the reservoir can sustain a large operation, the company hopes to produce one 40-foot container of liquid helium per day from one drill hole and employ roughly 20 people.

The company would need a permit from Lake County to start a commercial operation and some form of clearance from the state. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said there's little to no roadmap for assessing a helium project.

There is no fossil fuel extraction in Minnesota, and no helium drilling either.

"We are looking at all available options for creating a clear regulatory structure for nonpetroleum gas extraction," DNR spokesman Erik Evans wrote in an email last month.