Second helium purification facility fully commissioned and new discovery sets foundation for a third facility

On June 7,North American Helium Inc. (“NAH” or the “Company”) provided a corporate and operational update on recent substantial achievements by the Company. Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Nicholas Snyder, chairman and chief executive officer, stated, “I’d like to congratulate our team on the completion and successful start-up of the Battle Creek helium plant. Bringing a facility like this online ahead of schedule and under budget despite numerous challenges from the global pandemic is a significant achievement. Like our first plant at Cypress, the offtake from the Battle Creek facility has been pre-sold on long-term contracts, with a Tier 1 global industrial gas company as the anchor customer.

“The security and sustainability of supply chains for critical inputs like helium are now in the forefront for many stakeholders, especially semiconductor manufacturers who represent the fastest growing segment of global helium demand. With production of helium from legacy hydrocarbon projects in decline and major initiatives underway to grow domestic semiconductor manufacturing, North America is unfortunately now on a path to become a net importer of helium in the coming years. With global helium supply shifting to less geopolitically secure regions, it has never been more important to responsibly develop new sustainable sources of helium supply in the US and Canada that are capable of reliable long-term production like our Battle Creek facility.

“New sources of helium production must start with a discovery. As a result of three major global helium shortages over the past 15 years, a number of smaller helium fields discovered by oil and gas explorers in the 1950s and 1960s have been produced, but these fields are now depleted. New discoveries are needed, and our Company is proud to be the leading explorer, leveraging seismic data from past oil and gas exploration efforts to economically explore for, discover, and develop new helium sources from deep fields of nitrogen gas, which have a much smaller emissions footprint than previous helium production as a hydrocarbon byproduct. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but I’m excited to say this is only just the beginning.”

To read the full press release, click here.