High grade helium in a unique geological setting with no associated hydrocarbons or CO2
Introduction
Helium One acreage in Tanzania totals 1,372 km2 in two areas: the Rukwa and Eyasi rift basin and these projects have surface seeps with helium concentrations up to 10.4%.
The Company’s flagship southern Rukwa Helium Project is located within the southern Rukwa Rift Basin in south-west Tanzania. This project is considered to be entering an appraisal and development stage following the success of the 2023/24 exploration drilling campaign, which led to a helium discovery on the Itumbula West-1 (“ITW-1”) well. During an extended well test (“EWT”) in Q3 2024, the well successfully flowed 5.5% helium continually to surface and up to 7.9% helium was measured from the faulted Karoo and fractured Basement plays. Prior to this, the Company drilled two additional exploration wells (Tai-1/1A and Tai-3) on the Tai prospect in 2021 and 2023 respectively, and these encountered elevated helium shows during drilling and the first successful downhole helium sample in Tanzania (measured at 0.8% helium) was recovered to surface during these operations.
This discovery is globally unique as it is one of the very few helium projects which does not have any associated hydrocarbons or CO2, firmly positioning it within the “green” helium space.
The Eyasi project is considered as early-stage exploration projects and is currently being evaluated by the Company’s subsurface team following field work studies that conducted soil gas and surface seep analyses.
In November 2024, the Company successfully completed a farm-in into 50% of Blue Star Helium’s (ASX: BNL) Galactica-Pegasus proven helium project in Las Animas County, Colorado, USA covering an area of 246km2. Confirmed discovery wells in the region have flowed up to 6% helium (average of 3%) as free gas and are close to existing helium infrastructure. Blue Star drilled the State-16 development well in June 2024 which flowed 1.9% helium at 285 thousand cubic feet per day in addition to 70% CO2. The Company’s internal gross resource estimates, assuming a P50 Helium concentration of 3%, are 675 million cubic feet. This development project is strategically located near key, under-utilised infrastructure, downstream helium purification plants and consumers.