18
you take that number and multiply by how much gas you
think you have in the subsurface, and that shows your poten-
tial resource.”
Helium One delivered all this data to resource certifier
Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc., in Houston. In 2016,
NSAI said there could be as much as 98 billion cubic feet of
helium below Mtili’s hot rock. That would be enough to ful-
fill global demand for 16 years. “To my knowledge, it was the
largest primary helium reserve ever announced,” Bluett says.
Goodbye, helium shortage—at least in theory.I
n the exploration business, everything is hypothetical until
you dig a hole. There could be a big difference between
the helium resources, meaning how much is down there,
and the helium reserves, meaning how much can be profitably
recovered. Right now, Helium One has a resource.
“One thing’s absolutely certain—there is that much helium
down there,” Ballentine says. “Whether it’s concentrated in a
form that’s extractable commercially is where the current risk
lies.” (Ballentine and Barry each hold a fraction of 1% of Helium
One equity.) The helium could be stuck in water. The bubbles
Mtili tapped in July might not represent enough gas to fill the
trapping structures that Amoco mapped. The only way to know
these unknowns—aspects of the reservoir’s composition, the
permeability of the sediments, the flow rate, how the pressure
will decrease as the gas flows—is to drill into the structures.
That’s going to be tricky. Weil Group Resources LLC, which
is based in Richmond, Va., but operates mostly in Canada, was
the first to mine helium for its own sake, and remains the only
company to have done so. (At a capacity of 40 million cubic feet
a year, Weil’s helium plant isn’t large enough to affect the sup-
ply deficit.) “It’s quite an intricate analysis,” says Chief Executive
Officer Jeffrey Vogt. “You really have to be methodical, thought-
ful, and discerning.” The geology of Saskatchewan being some-
what different from Tanzania’s, his technique won’t offerHelium One any hints. Bluett says they’ll be using a method
similar to that deployed for oil and gas drilling.
Tanzania itself presents challenges. Operating in Africa can
be unpredictable. The government imposed a $190 billion fine
on U.K. gold-mining concern Acacia Mining Plc in 2017. “That
killed Tanzania overnight” for investors, Abraham-James says.
“We were collateral damage,” and Helium One was unable to
raise money for the expensive and essential seismic and drill-
ing work as quickly as it had hoped. In January the Tanzanian
government named a new minister of minerals, Dotto Biteko,
whose office didn’t respond to requests for comment. In July,
Acacia’s fine was reduced to $300 million.
More directly, Helium One will face difficulties getting its
infrastructure up and running. The springs are far removed
from anything approximating a logistical hub. Abraham-James
insists that the company’s cryogenic plant will have a small
footprint and run on a turbine driven by the gas it’s extract-
ing. Assuming that even works, liquid helium must be trans-
ported in expensive intermodal containers known as ISOs.
Trucks carrying them will need to travel over a gravel road for
three hours in either direction. It’s in better shape than many
other such roads in East Africa, but it’s not a crushed-seashell
driveway in East Hampton, either. Even for trucks upgraded
with expensive air or hydraulic suspensions to protect their
cargo, those roads must be continually maintained and graded.
“It’s not just having the helium,” Intelligas Consulting’s Garvey
says. “You’ve got to have infrastructure there to get it out of the
ground, and iw t could be extremely high-priced helium by the
time they export it.” Things have grown complicated enough
that Abraham-James left management, he and the company
say, because day-to-day operations have expanded beyond his
expertise and interest. His replacement, Ian Stalker, previously
led uranium company Uramin Inc. to a $2.5 billion buyout.
Helium One has faced delays in the past, and more are
likely. By the time it gets its product to market, new sources
may have gotten there first: Ras Laffan
Industrial City, a planned production
facility in Qatar—it’s figured out an end
run around Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.—
is expected to add 400 million cubic feet
annually. “This will barely cover the lost
production from the BLM,” Bluett says. But
then there’s Russia. Gazprom is working on
a facility in Siberia known as Amur, though
it’s faced infrastructure-related delays and
is even farther from a port than Itumbula.
Some doubt it will ever deliver its promised
2 billion cubic feet. But if it does, Garvey
says, “we should have plenty of helium.
That’s going to level the price out as sup-
ply comes back. Do we really need more?”
“Haters are gonna hate,” says Abraham-
James, who still owns 9% of the company.
“They’re all, ‘It’s too big, it’s in Africa, you
must have made it all up.’ If they’re bad-
mouthing us, that’s a very good sign—I like
that. Otherwise they wouldn’t be both-
ered.” The residents of Itumbula, at least,
Villages like Itumbula rely on salt ponds like these for income are hoping he’s right. <BW> *BASED ON DEC. 2018 PRICES. DATA: BLOOMBERG NEW ENERGY FINANCE. BIKE: COURTESY CHRIS HINSHAW