Activity at the Pulsar Helium Topaz drill site near Babbitt picked up recently with the drilling of a second test well, Jetstream #2. I was there two days before drilling commenced on Jan. 16.
It was everything you’d expect from a gas drilling site. Heavy equipment groaned beneath a tall derrick near an office trailer full of Gulf Coast accents and old coffee.
But this certainly wasn’t Texas, the largest gas-producing state in the union. The temperature was 14 below. The van designated to haul journalists to the site broke down that morning. The CEO, Thomas Abraham-James, shivered as he explained the project. The results of this drilling could launch an unprecedented helium industry in northern Minnesota, a place entirely new to commercial gas production.
Last week, the Jetstream #2 well reached 5,000 feet below the surface — almost a mile. That’s twice the depth of the historic Soudan Underground Mine, a reference locals on the Mesabi Iron Range would understand. In the old days, miners would occasionally find pockets of gas (usually in the lunch room), but none worth any money. Until recently.
Over the past two decades, mineral exploration firms drilled for copper, nickel and other resources in the Duluth Complex. One crew located helium. The site, located just over the Lake County line from Babbitt, didn’t have marketable minerals, but it did show signs of marketable gas.
That invited speculation by Pulsar, a new company formed in Canada with ties to the UK and Portugal.
Pulsar’s first well, Jetstream #1, is located just a short walk from Jetstream #2. I visited that site back in September when the company was still evaluating the samples. The earlier drilling confirmed exceptionally high amounts of helium. Results showed concentrations ranging from 8.7% to 14.5%, which would place this as the richest new helium source of this century.
Helium is usually harvested as a byproduct of natural gas or uranium exploration. But at the Pulsar Topaz site, most of the non-helium gas is carbon dioxide and nitrogen, much less harmful than the methane that often accompanies helium in other parts of the world.
These wells don’t require fracking or chemical agents to access. The carbon dioxide can be captured and sold, too, which means that the environmental impact of this project is much lower than typical gas drilling operations.
But how much helium is actually down there? That’s the multi-million dollar question.
The helium rose from within the earth long ago, becoming trapped in large fissures within the dense, impermeable rock that undergirds the Iron Range. Jetstream #2 aims to prove that these fissures are connected as part of a larger structure.
“We have a strong level of confidence that they are connected,” said Abraham-James.
The company may drill about half a dozen wells to gauge the size of the deposit, but will only need two or three when production begins, according to Abraham-James.
From the moment the company concludes the project is economically feasible, Abraham-James says it will take 18 months to build the small processing modules on site. He said it will be about a year before they learn that, which means the earliest start of production would be sometime in the last half of 2027.
Minnesota might be new to helium production, but it’s catching up quickly. Last year, the state legislature approved a tax structure that Pulsar says it can work with. This will capture public funds from the one-time extraction of this natural resource. Abraham-James also said companies are inquiring about the availability of locally-sourced helium.
Helium is used as an important element in the manufacturing of semi-conductors and fiber optics. In addition, hospitals and medical facilities use large amounts of helium for MRI machines and scanners. You may have seen news that several data centers are proposed for central and southern Minnesota. Those could use helium as a cooling agent, given the large amount of energy used and heat produced by these massive server sites.
The closer the customers, the better. Even liquid helium sheds molecules in transit, no matter how tightly sealed the tanks. Though helium is hardly the only element that goes into high tech medical and computer devices, an affordable local source could help those industries gain a footing in the North Woods.
The cold weather of northern Minnesota might be a challenge for some, but helium loves the cold. We’ll find out soon if it might aid the local economy.
Aaron J. Brown is an author and college instructor from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com. This piece first appeared in the Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025 edition of the Mesabi Tribune.
Yep! Soon everyone nesr Babbit will be speaking in funny high pitched voice all the time, How many locals does this project employ now ? How do the tax brreaks they have work more specically ? How likely with the geography underneath the earth being altered affect topside ? Hopefully there is a likelhhod that business can move closer to the source of the helium ? What have local experiences like where similar extractions are/have taken place ? Who owns the companies ? Who’s on their boards if they exist ? Are their stockholders ? If so promarily owned by whom ? At first read this seems ans easy process. However in the end ot is really never a simple straught forward “go ahead!” Hopefully not so in this case. Thanks