Noble Helium (ASX:NHE) rig up for ‘company making’ campaign
April 6, 2023Noble Helium will be digging deep, in fact, 2500 meters underground, to test for up to 16.5 billion cubic feet at its Mbelele-1 and Pegere-1’company-making’ targets, part of the North Rukwa Helium Project in Tanzania.
It seems helium is not all hot air, with demand set to increase with growth in various end-use industries, including healthcare, electronics, and aerospace.
This makes Noble’s exploration timely, with the helium supply remaining limited, with the US, the largest helium supplier, reducing production – contributing to the current global shortage.
Noble Helium Chief Executive and Co-founder Justyn Wood said a heavy-duty rig capable of getting to the required depths would be available for drilling, expected to begin early in the year’s second half.
“Sofori’s very capable oil and gas rig can reach depths to 2,500m, well beyond our deepest projected depth of 1,200m, and has been drilling continuously since 2017. It is right-sized and in the hands of our highly experienced drilling team. We are very confident of success in Q3,” Mr Wood said.
Meanwhile, Noble Helium’s leadership group in Australia and the Tanzanian team are pursuing value partnerships to support its development program.
“As announced on 5th April 2023, multiple expressions of interest to participate in the North Rukwa Project and fund the drilling program were received at the end of the March quarter, as part of the Company’s ongoing farm-out process,” Mr Wood said.
“Interest in the project, given its potential scale and strategic value, continues to be strong and we look forward to joining with a partner who shares our increasing confidence in North Rukwa’s helium prospectivity.”
Green helium for a high-tech world.
Noble Helium says it answers the world’s growing need for a primary, ideally carbon-free, and geo-politically independent source of helium. Located along Tanzania’s East African Rift System, the company’s four projects are being advanced according to the highest ESG benchmarks to serve the increasing supply chain fragility and supply-demand imbalance for this scarce, tech-critical and high-value industrial gas.
The Company’s flagship North Rukwa Project has an independently certified, summed unrisked mean Prospective Helium Resource of 176 billion cubic feet (equivalent to approximately 30 years’ supply). The project lies within the Rukwa Basin, which has the potential to be the world’s third-largest helium reserve behind USA and Qatar.
Priced at up to 50 times the price of LNG in liquid form, helium is now essential to many modern applications as an irreplaceable element in vital hi-tech products such as computer and smartphone components, MRI systems, medical treatments, superconducting magnets, fibre optic cables, microscopes, particle accelerators, and space rocket launches – NASA is a major consumer. Rising demand and constrained supply are fuelling growth prospects within the global marketplace, particularly for cleaner “green helium” sourced from non-carbon environments. At present, more than 95% of the world’s helium is produced as a by-product of the processing of hydrocarbon-bearing gas.
Additionally, Noble Helium has commissioned the first-ever Helium Atlas, with an exclusive five-year agreement allowing the Company to identify additional prospective areas to target for diversification.
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