- Gold Hydrogen (ASX:GHY) reports it could be looking at Australia’s first hydrogen-helium project
- The company has detected both gases downhole its second Ramsay well in SA
- Despite the strong performance in recent history, shares are flat today at 79 cents
South Australia-based natural hydrogen explorer Gold Hydrogen (ASX:GHY) – which recently drilled the first-ever natural hydrogen well in Australia – has found fresh evidence of a different kind of gas.
That gas is helium, and Gold Hydrogen has reported it’s found world-class concentrations – findings that come from Schlumberger (SLB).
The company’s Ramsay 2 well clocked its total depth of 1068 metres at the start of December. Now, data from that well is returned – and raw helium gas concentrations reach up to 6.8 per cent.
Hydrogen gas was also intersected downhole Ramsay 2; both gases were also detected in Ramsay 1.
Potential not proven yet
While it’s still early days, the company announced that if these concentrations are widespread under the overlying acreage, then it could be sitting on a helium project.
That would be a turnaround from the company’s namesake, Gold Hydrogen.
“While we were already pleasantly surprised by the previously tested and announced helium found at Ramsay 1, the results from Ramsay 2 of 6.8 per cent helium in the raw gas do not come as a complete shock,” Gold Hydrogen Managing Director Neil McDonald said.
“These findings further affirm our commitment to pioneering advancements in the field and underscore the global significance of the Ramsay project.”
Mr McDonald remarked on his recent attendance at an international natural hydrogen conference. Contemporary research regularly finds that hydrogen and helium gas can coincide together.
These findings validate our strategic decision to fast-track the drilling of our second well, and they provide us with the momentum to expand the project significantly in 2024.
…So why is the hydrogen ‘gold’?
For the uninitiated, different types of hydrogen manufacture are referred to as ‘colours’ in industry marketing.
Blue hydrogen is that made with power sourced from fossil fuels; grey hydrogen is that produced from the steam reformation of methane; green hydrogen is hydrogen made with power sourced from renewables, and gold hydrogen is that extracted from underground.
Hydrogen is known to accumulate as a gas in the earth’s crust at some locations but is, on the whole, uncommon.
So too is helium – a material in short supply. The vast majority of Earth’s helium is actually mined, not synthesised in a lab.
A recent proliferation of complications in global supply chains since COVID-19 first kicked off has led to a global shortage.
Despite the eyebrow-raising news, GHY shares are flat at 79 cents.