A potential helium reservoir was discovered in Minnesota last week after drillers bored deep beneath the forest floor of the state’s Iron Range as supplies of the noble gas dwindle in the U.S. Pulsar Helium Inc., a Canadian-based company, announced in a news release on Thursday that its team encountered gases with concentrations of up to 12.4% helium when its drilling rig reached a total depth of 2,200 at the Topaz Project drill site. Helium concentrations above 0.
The concentration was measured with a mass spectrometer at the drill site, and samples of the collected gas will be sent to a "specialist gas laboratory for full molecular composition, removal of atmospheric contamination, and isotopic characterization," the company said. Abraham-James told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that nearly all helium is a byproduct of natural gas production, but the lesser gas isn’t a priority for those companies.
In January, the Compressed Gas Association warned in a letter that the U.S. government’s selling of its Federal Helium Reserve system "could lead to severe disruptions in the U.S. helium supply chain." The FHR spans Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and provides 20% of the U.S. helium supply.