Reminder: District Conference Date Change

Susan Polege:

Tracy, the outbound Youth Exchange Student is going to Italy. 

 

Northwoods Partners is sponsoring a seven week series on balance. It starts February 10th, weekly for seven weeks.

Contact Lisa or Heidi at 218-365-8019 or Kathleen at 218-302-1778.

Register online: yourjuniper.org

 

50/50 drawing: Joe Owens won the chance to draw a card for split the pot of $380. He did not draw the winning card. The pot moves to the next meeting. 

Thomas Abraham-James is the founder, CEO and major shareholder of Pulsar Helium. They are located between Babbitt and Isabella and refer to this as the Topaz Project.

 

Tom is a geologist from England, who grew up in Australia.  He is married to a Portuguese and lives in Portugal. He worked in Greenland and Iceland for several years. He lived in Tanzania and Africa and now spends time in northern USA. The Duluth Complex studies in geology are in every geology textbook. (This area is truly unique) 

 

Tom has been in the helium industry for 10 years. His job in Tanzania was to find new mineral deposits. He stumbled upon the beginning of a world helium shortage and the need to find more. This became his mission. 

 

In 2019 a geologist told Tom they found helium in Minnesota. They were drilling for copper and nickel and hit high pressure gas. They analyzed the gas with concerns it might be flammable. It was not. In the analysis was a high concentration of helium. One of the highest concentrations found on the planet. Tom and a couple of his colleagues left the company they had started and created Pulsar Helium in 2019. They received leases in 2021.

 

The next step was to map out what the ground looks like underneath to confirm the size of the occurrence. 

 

The company is using as much local business as possible. Tom shared an extensive list of business from Ely, Babbitt, the Iron Range to Duluth that are involved with the project. There is no expertise for gas or oil in the state. The drill crew comes from Montana. Ancillary services are mostly from Minnesota especially nearby. 

 

The company shares all of its data with IRRRB and received a grant from them for their work.

 

Using newer ambient noise tomography rather than seismology technology which requires more invasive blasting. This technology is able to use blasting that that takes place in mining at North Shore Mining nearby for data. Sensitive sensors no bigger than a coffee cup are placed throughout the testing area and records quality data for about 3 weeks which are then gathered and analyzed. This leaves no footprint to gather this data.

 

Other data is gathered by planes flying in a grid pattern overhead with gravity and magnetic data. 

 

Tom had a slideshow showing the size of the likely helium deposits and explained how the helium is created and how deposits form. It comes from some of the oldest rock on the planet. The Giants Range batholith is a great body of granite in northeastern Minnesota that lies between the Mesabi and Vermilion iron-mining districts. It has to do with how rocks decay over long periods of time and what the decay produces which ultimately is helium; which eventually migrates to reservoirs such as the deposit discovered here. 

 

The Pulsar drilling confirmed what the copper nickel testing reported when they drilled to 5,100 feet at the same site. Initial findings are promising that the reservoir is much thicker and larger than originally thought. 

 

The drill holes can be used for production. No need to drill holes again. Once the gas is extracted the hole is capped off with with something the size of a fire hydrant and everything else is restored to what it was originally. The Department of Human Services oversees the capping of drill sites after the gas is extracted.

 

He talked about the production drilling process using water and a thicken agent which is clay and walnuts. Not chemicals. 

 

How big does the reservoir appear to be? A half a billion cubic feet so far. The world uses about 6 billion cubic feet a year so we are looking for something bigger than that to be sustainable over a period of time. 

 

The helium plants do not require a lot of employees having a smaller footprint the size of a glorified gas station; but there will be ancillary services needed that they anticipate will also benefit surrounding communities. The helium being located here may attract large users of helium such as semiconductor companies to Minnesota. 

 

 

Pulsar management currently have capital raise underway that is available for U S residents. This is a private offering through the University Bank in Detroit. This information is available in one of the latests news releases. 

 

If the company acquires the investments they are currently seeking, it will get them through to Final Investment Decision toward building the plants through debt financing from the bank. The company would be the producer and the operator. They are on the radar of some bigger companies where they have been asked to present their business.

 

Tom offers for those who want to see the project, to let him know. They have had every walk of life come to see the project including legislators, and business owners. He tries to be as open and transparent as possible. 

 

Question: How much will the state of Minnesota receive in the way of taxes? The state will get 18.5%. Taconite pays 3%. 

 

Thank you to Tom for a most informative program. We look forward to hearing more about the development of the project. 

 

For more information visit Pulsar Helium Inc.'s website at: https://pulsarhelium.com/overview/default.aspx

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Cathy Coombe