Huge helium deposit discovered in the US.

A team of researchers has discovered a large reserve of helium with extremely high concentrations, which could boost global supplies.

The drilling site for helium gas in the Helium Pulsar. Photo: Helium Pulsar — The drilling site for helium gas in the Helium Pulsar. Photo: *Helium Pulsar*

Researchers have found the largest helium deposit in North America at a drilling site in Minnesota. Pulsar Helium, Inc., a resource exploration company, has a drilling rig located outside the city of Babbitt in the Iron Range mining district, which stretches 280 kilometers across northern Minnesota. The rig first broke ground in early February 2024 and made the discovery just over three weeks later, reaching a depth of 670 meters in the early morning of February 28th, according to Live Science . According to Thomas Abraham-James, president and CEO of the company, this is a major discovery for helium exploration.

Whether the area can support the plant's extraction and supply of large quantities of helium depends on the size of the field as assessed by authorities. However, the discovery is of global significance due to the extremely high concentration of helium, Abraham-James said.

Helium is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas found beneath the Earth's crust along with many other natural gases. Although it is the second most abundant gas in the universe, helium is scarce on Earth, forming only as a byproduct of nuclear fusion or through the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium.

For commercial extraction, the helium concentration in natural gas must be above 0.3%, according to the American Chemical Society. The concentration measured at depths of 530-670 meters at the drilling site in Minnesota reached 12.4%. Helium is a highly valuable gas, used not only for pumping aircraft but also as a coolant in rockets, nuclear reactors, superconductors, and medical diagnostics such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The increasing demand for helium is rapidly depleting known resources, prompting companies to search for untapped reserves globally. In the U.S., one of the world's leading helium exporters, major reserves are found primarily in Texas and Kansas. However, other suppliers are surpassing the U.S., including Russia, Qatar, and Tanzania, where Abraham-James and colleagues discovered a large helium deposit in 2016.

Experts are scheduling further research at the Minnesota drilling site to determine if the underground helium reserves are recoverable. They expect to reach a conclusion later this year.

An Khang (According to Live Science )

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