Drilling begins on historic helium deposit on the Iron Range

BABBITT, MN. (Northern News Now) - More than a decade after its discovery in 2011, drilling has finally begun on a historically high concentrated helium deposit on the Iron Range.

The drill site is on 1.1 acres of land 45 minutes southeast of the City of Babbitt.

Extraction on the drill site, which is only 1.1 acres in size, began Friday by Pulsar Helium, the company that took over the project in 2019.

The helium deposit sits at 1778 ft. below the ground but the plan is to dig to a total depth of 2,600 ft.

Michael Sturdy, the General Manager of Operations for Pulsar Helium, said although helium extraction is new to the region, there is no need to fear the unknown.

“With the steel mining, typically, they have a giant pit and they’re basically digging a pit.” said Sturdy. “There is a tremendous amount of surface. We’re basically drilling a hole that ultimately is going to be about [six to eight inches wide.]”

In two days, Pulsar drilled 90 feet into the ground for the first phase of drilling.

“The purpose of that surface hole drilled down to about 90 ft. is we put steel casing in the ground, and we submit it back to surface,” said Sturdy “That would protect any fresh water in the area.”

Pulsar leaders emphasized the importance of minimizing the environmental impact while maximizing profits.

Profitability will be determined after testing is completed on the extracted gas to find out how big the deposit is, how much helium is actually in it, and its concentration.

“We’ve been in severe shortages since 2013, the demand is always going to be there,” said Cliff Cain, CEO of the Edelgas Group who will advise Pulsar on whether or not it is financially smart to move on to production. “If you look at all the industries that we have talked about, semiconductors, aerospace, MRIs, and those are growing.”

Cain said this deposit means massive economic growth could occur on the Iron Range.

“You have helium right here in your backyard, but also attracting, you know, potentially semiconductor manufacturers to coming to Minnesota,” said Cain. “Everybody would always like to have businesses coming and building, creating jobs. This is one of the critical pathways into doing that.”

If Pulsar moves on to the production phase, the size of the site will remain the same.

Pulsar expects to finish drilling by the end of the month and begin testing.

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