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“The long-awaited event of filling a helium container with liquid has now taken place, an achievement the Company is pleased to announce,” Renergen Ltd (ASX:RLT) wrote on Friday.
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“It is being collected by the customer today.”
That was enough to send the company’s share price over 15% higher to 52cps after a long-awaited journey from the South African-based player to produce helium – a material often prone to shortage, most recently during the COVID-19 years.
Part of the wait came down to something shareholders often have limited patience for – technical difficulties; a tribulation Renergen acknowledged on Friday.
In principle, the issue was getting supercooling apparatuses to work properly such that liquid helium could be made. (Similar to liquid natural gas, liquid helium needs to be cooled to such subzero temperatures it becomes like a superfluid.)
Renergen’s explanation of how it worked around this, however, could perhaps have been more forthcoming.
“After facing challenges cooling large iso-containers to the extreme temperatures needed for liquid helium storage (-269 degrees Celsius), we’ve implemented an effective alternate solution,” Renergen wrote.
“We will now regularly fill smaller Dewars (250-500 litres) with liquid helium. This practical approach will continue until our plant reaches closer to nameplate capacity.”
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The share price boost is a win for Renergen, whose one-year returns are down -42% as shareholders continued to lose patience with the company for performing below expectations over long timeframes.
The context of South Africa – and its power grid – is worth considering here.
“Successfully managing cryogenic liquid at -269 degrees Celsius is a remarkable accomplishment achieved by very few companies worldwide,” Renergen CEO Stefano Marani said.
To that end, the stock is being rewarded by investors today.
RLT last traded at 52cps.
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