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Pulsar Helium is going deeper at its helium well near Babbitt.
The Portugal-headquartered company is deepening the single well at its Topaz site by at least 1,640 feet, the company said Monday.
Deepening the well allows Pulsar Helium to better assess the size of the helium deposit found in a previously- drilled 2,200 foot-deep hole, Pulsar Helium said.
“Deepening of the Jetstream #1 well has commenced and is progressing extremely well,” Thomas Abraham-James, Pulsar Helium president and chief executive officer said. “The assessment of the full height of the previously discovered high helium concentration reservoir is a key stage in progressing Topaz. Previous drill data obtained in February 2024 indicated that we only reached the top of the reservoir and that it may extend for a further 1,640 feet. Immediately upon completion we will run down-hole tools, and I look forward to keeping the market updated with our progress.”
By later this week, Pulsar Helium plans to have the well deepened.
With the deepening, the well will be at least 3,840 feet-deep, according to Pulsar Helium.
After the deepening, open-hole analysis of the findings begins followed by flow testing at a later date when the well pressure has been stabilized, Pulsar Helium said.
A drill pad for another well, called Jetstream #2, has also been completed, the company said.
Finding more helium in the original well would be a major boost for the project. Pulsar Helium in the original hole found a high concentration of helium.
The original well was drilled on private land about 50 feet away from a hole in which Duluth Metals struck helium in 2011 while exploring for copper, nickel, cobalt, and platinum group minerals.
Pulsar Helium hopes to develop a commercial operation from the helium discovery.
The company currently has mineral rights on 4,181 acres of private land at the site.
Without any existing rules or regulations on hydrocarbon extraction within the state, the 2024 Minnesota legislature passed a series of rules and regulations that would apply to the project.
If a commercial helium operation is developed from the site, it would be the first in the state. Under the legislation, the state could capture some of the revenue produced from helium production for schools and communities.
