RE: Investor Webinar expectations too high.10 Jul 2024 07:27
"Helium One Global (AIM:HE1) made a much anticipated breakthrough this year in the company’s quest to develop Tanzania’s first producing helium province, with drilling at its flagship Rukwa prospect reporting measured concentrations of up to 4.7pc helium, almost nine thousand times above background levels.
HE1 has three fully-owned projects, Rukwa, Balangida, and Eyasi, spanning some 2,965 km2, located by near surface seeps with helium concentrations ranging up to 10.6pc by volume. Rukwa is the most advanced, a series of drilling programmes indicating the presence of a working helium system.
Having secured its own drilling rig, HE1 explored Rukwa’s Tai 3 prospect last year, issuing a CPR for Tai stating an unrisked best estimate of potentially recoverable helium of 2.8 Bcf, a 61pc increase in the original resource estimate from the previous 2020 CPR, and an unrisked high case estimate of 7.1 Bcf, 30pc higher than the previous forecast. Drilling yielded helium concentrations of up to 8,320 ppm helium (against normal background levels of approximately 5 ppm) and – crucially – identified a new well location on the licence’s Itumbula prospect.
In February HE1 was able to publish wireline logging and drill stem testing operations on Itumbula’s West-1 well reporting concentrations of helium to surface from basement of up to 4.7pc helium, described as ‘a huge milestone for the Company’. Hydrogen also flowed to surface during basement testing, at a concentration of 2.2pc, more than thirty-seven thousand times above background levels. Hot basement fluids, measuring more than 80°C were encountered across the fault zone and in the basement, with helium and hydrogen prone intervals indicating a low enthalpy geothermal system.
After casing and suspending the well for evaluation HE1 went on to report that an extended well test (EWT) was ‘on track for early Q3 2024’. An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) study, a key step in the Prospecting to Mining Licence conversion process, was ‘expected to take approximately six months to complete’.
A production facilities management company has been appointed to commence a design study for a helium production plant at Rukwa, the processing facility options being reviewed including a smaller, lower rate pilot plant that would allow for early production as well as larger, modular systems that can be scaled-up. HE1 said it was also ‘reviewing the merits of re-entering and deepening the Tai-3 well or pursuing a new exploration/appraisal well.’ The company raised £8m raise earlier this month to support this ‘pivotal stage in the Company’s development’. HE1’s most recent interims, for the six months to 31 December 2023, reported a net cash balance at 31 December 2023 of $8.7m.
Away from Rukwa, HE1 has also completed an analysis of gradiometry and aero-magnetic data over its Balangida prospect showing high-grade helium macro seeps enriched with other high-value nob