Welcome to In Business.

I'm Ken Buer.

Thank you for joining us.

We're at the Mount Royal Market where besides a great selection of produce and baked goods and grocery products, they also sell something very interesting.

And they sell a lot of them, interestingly enough, and that is helium filled party balloons.

When you think of helium, that's what you often think of is party balloons.

You know, that's only 1% of the use of helium.

Helium is an inert noble gas.

It has many uses.

For instance, helium saves lives.

It super cools the magnets in an MRI machine when you go to the hospital.

And helium is also because it's an inert noble gas.

It reacts to nothing, which means it's perfect for making supercomput chips like are used in artificial intelligence.

And guess what?

There's a shortage of helium.

That's because over 30% of the helium in the world comes from guitar.

And guess what was bombed during the start of the Iranian war?

That's right, the largest processing plant in the world for helium.

And that's where northeastern Minnesota comes in.

The duth complex and Minnesota's glorious iron range.

The helium concentration here is 8 10 and maybe even as high as 12%.

And it comes with carbon dioxide.

So it's a carbon capture as well.

And we need carbon dioxide for food processing and other uses.

We'll talk to Cliff Kaine.

He is the president of Pulsar Helium.

And we'll also talk to a man from a company that is making the devices that will super cool these gases so they can be transported all across the region and around the world.

The other thing we think about with helium, of course, is if I were to open this up and inhale it, I'd sound like Donald Duck.

But I was told by station management not to do that.

And so, as this part of the program is pre-recorded, if I were to do that, I'd just get in trouble.

I'd sound like Donald Duck, but you'd never see it because they just edit it out.

However, the end of this show is done live in studio with no chance to edit.

So, you'll want to stay tuned and watch all of this week's in business.

Welcome to In Business.

I'm Ken Ber.

This week, we're heading to the Iron Range where a helium discovery near Babbot is drawing attention from around the world.

A company called Pulsar Helium is exploring what could become a significant new domestic source of this important resource.

We were invited to visit the project site to learn more about the discovery and what it could mean for the region.

Let's take a look.

Cliff Kane is the president of Pulsar, the company that is developing this incredible site of helium here in northeastern Minnesota.

And this was kind of a chance discovery, was it not?

Yeah, it was a chance discovery.

Uh you had some folks up here that were looking for copper nickel and uh they drilled a hole in the ground and they uh went through a non-permeable layer uh and into a gas pocket and that was uh back in 2011.

Uh so yeah, it was just a chance discovery.

You know, nobody thought helium was up here and uh sometimes that's how it happens.

Now after that, that company was looking for copper nickel.

They weren't interested in gas.

How did Pulsar get involved in this?

Yeah.

So, the the a couple of gentlemen came down to one of these gas conferences down in I think it was down in Texas, right?

Um you know, they they saw that they had some high concentrations of helium.

Uh they knew it was they knew they had heard new news of a shortages uh that is common place in the helium industry, right?

And uh the founder of the company, Thomas Abraham James, um who also was a founder of a company in uh Africa for helium as well, uh saw the numbers and said, "Hey, there may be something here."

uh because anytime you're getting you know anytime eight eight to 12% helium concentrations in a in a flow that that's extremely high.

What is the normal that would be commercially economically feasible for tapping for tapping?

Well 98% of the world's helium is byproduct or is associated with LG production right and so like we say in the industry uh helium is a flea on the tail of the dog uh for the LG folks.

You know they're in the business of making LG.

Uh it just so happens every once in a while in LG stream there's a little bit of uh helium in it.

Uh so that you know these these these LG companies are pumping out you know hundreds of millions of foot of LG a year.

Uh and so small percentages of helium is economical to put a liquifier in to make helium.

Uh in this case hydrocarbon free no LG we're not worried about you know if the gas you know the price of gas is going to be falling.

This is what we call a pure play.

It's less than you know basically 2% of the world's supply of helium now is is a pure play helium source.

So 02 to 03% would be normal LNG liquify natural gas.

What is the percentage here and how much does that mean?

Well it's pretty high here.

Uh just like these bugs that are flying around.

No, it's uh you know 12% I mean anything above 5% is is is definitely intriguing and commercially valuable right especially as you heard from the flows that we flowed earlier um and and having seven wells that have hit helium having high concentrations make it very lucrative.

Um but also when you have high concentrations of what we call helium 4 and we're now have independently verified the federal government has that we have helium 3 in here as well too.

Uh that's just a double whammy in a good way.

Explain to me the difference between helium 1 2 3 and four and what the value is as it relates to Jetream 1 here.

Yeah.

So your your helium 4 is what you know most folks they think about right you know whether it goes into party balloons which is less than 1% of the demand globally uh for juice but you know your MRIs in aerospace your pressures your p your purging um welding applications that's that's helium 4 right uh that's 99.999999% of all the helium and we talk about helium 3 we're talking parts per billion you know and if you probably checked on Google or seen on the news that the US government and China and Russia is making plans to go mine, you know, helium 3 on the lunar surface.

Uh because one, it's extremely rare and it's a very small component in the atmosphere and even a small component in the gas itself.

Um but you know with the the modern age that we have right we have uh neutron detection uh which is helium 3 is used to identify uh fizzle materials coming across the border.

Um also fusion energy is going to need helium 3 but also quantum AI.

Quantum computers need helium 3 to operate and this is what you know kind of the big the big arms race right the big quantum AI race who's going to get to it first um so uh having this high concentration of helium 3 interested parties are looking at it right because this could be the first terrestrial source of helium 3 uh you know globally right and what does that mean economically oh well you know one kilogram of helium 3 is about $30 million right that's extremely high.

Um, if you, you know, you talk about the price of, uh, you know, 1,000, you know, let's say one cubic foot of, of Helium is about 50, right?

So, yeah, there's a big difference in pricing when it comes the Helium 4 to the Helium 3.

But Helium 3 comes with its challenges, right?

It's never been done commercially out there.

It's never been available to test commercially to get it to something like that.

Um, where we get Helium 3 today is, you know, a byproduct of uh, nuclear weapons decay.

So, our own nuclear weapons maintenance program, uh, we take warheads and we basically suck out the helium 3, which degrades the yield of the weapon, but that's how we get our helium 3 today for the most part.

And the future for this, what does it mean from a national defense standpoint?

Well, my vision here is this this is going to be a rare gas hub, right?

It's going to be, you know, hopefully the first potential helium 3 producer.

Uh, one helium 4 is here, right?

So, um, my vision is that we have, you know, is it going to be Minnesota or the moon, right?

And I would hope that we have an identified helium 3 source that we take those steps uh to uh to produce the helium 3 out of these wells.

How far along in this process are we before we go commercial with uh you've got seven uh drill sites now, you've got seven places for possible extraction.

You haven't even found the extent of what this pool of underground gas is.

What time frames are you looking at?

Uh, so this is a good thing.

So, Governor Waltz finally signed off on the bill just a few days ago, right?

Which gives Minnesota the finally some framework uh for us to work with.

You know, Minnesota has not had anything on the books for producing any type of gas uh helium for that matter too, right?

Uh so this is this is incredible work done at this at the state level, right?

A bipartisan effort uh to get this framework through so we actually have a path to production.

Cliff Kane is the uh president of Pulsar.

Uh we're up on Minnesota's glorious Iron Range and we're talking about gases and the other parts of this is it's a carbon capture.

Explain carbon capture and how this fits into it because we need that carbon dioxide that is mixed in with the helium as well, right?

Yep.

So, uh you know, with just as helium, you know, we have CO2 shortages uh in the United States all the time.

And uh we call this what we call merchant grade CO2, which is your your your food, beverage, and medical grade.

So if you you've been to any hospital or you've been to any brewery uh right uh we use CO2 for these things and uh so instead of you know we don't want to emit CO2 from this um we actually we have another commodity that are coming out of these wells that is going to be an economic boost for Minnesota and that's be able to produce uh food beverage and medical grade CO2 for the markets.

Um, so we'll be able to produce helium 4, helium 3.

Hopefully, right, we can get there and, uh, and CO2.

Cliff, uh, tell me a little bit about on the future of all of this.

Um, I have friends in Phoenix.

Intel has a huge plant out there.

They're making semiconductor chips that uses a lot of helium, and it's not really in a place conducive for cooling.

Could you envision something like that in here?

Yeah, I really do.

I mean when you look at uh if you if you look at Arizona you know they've done a lot of things right right um and attracting businesses there and uh you know jumping first on that semiconductor fab act the chips act um you know but we need that second hub right and when we talk about sight selection criteria for these new advanced industries they look at helium as a site selection criteria am I close to the source right because there is no substitute for helium in their processes whether it's an aerospace or launching a rocket or you know making semiconductor chips, you have to have it, right?

So if it's right down the road from you or proverbally in your backyard, this becomes a very attractive, you know, thing for for their companies.

And you were explaining to me the reason Arizona was picked uh by Intel was because they had a source of helium.

So where was it?

The proximity of the helium, you know, you have uh the Wyoming labarge uh field, which is uh 20% of the world supply.

Um, and they also had some helium uh in northeastern Arizona, right?

So, they had helium basically in their backyard.

Cliff Kane is the president of Pulsar.

They are exploring for helium and carbon dioxide here in northeastern Minnesota.

And this is in business.

But how does helium end up trapped deep underground in the first place?

To help answer that question, we talked to a geologist from the Natural Resources Research Institute.

Let's take a look.

This week on In Business, we're taking a deep look into a possible find in northeastern Minnesota that could be the largest untapped natural resource on the face of the earth of helium.

And to take this deep dive into this issue, we have to go deep underground.

And that's why we're at the University of Minnesota's natural resource research institute with Dr.

Jarish Takarta and he is a lead researcher and scientist and is going to tell us where does helium come from.

Right.

Thank you.

So in Minnesota we have a spectacular natural occurrence of helium and one of the you know one of the remarkable ones that have been so far detected on earth.

So here here is the map of the Dunuth complex which is a group of layered rocks that covers approximately 5,000 um square miles on the surface of the earth.

And this the duth complex is composed of layered intrusive rocks.

And within those layered intrusive rocks are spaces or places where helium has been found.

Now how where did the helium come from?

That's a that's a big question.

Most likely helium came from deep underneath deep down many many thousands of feet underneath the the Dunut complex in the layers of the deep crust in grrenitic rocks that occur at that depth.

The basement grrenitic rocks that occur at that depth uranium and thorium are common elements.

So uranium and thorium are natural elements which undergo radioactive decay.

And when that decay happens, it releases an alpha particle.

An alpha particle is charged two plus charged particle with two protons and two neutrons in the nucleus.

No electrons.

But then the charged alpha particle is unstable.

So it absorbs two electrons from the surroundings to make one atom of helium.

So that is called helium 4.

And helium 4 happens to be a gas that is extremely inert.

It does not react with anybody.

So once that is formed deep under the surface, the gas will want to move upward.

It is one of the two lightest of elements.

Next lightest most light is hydrogen.

Helium comes next.

So it moves upward through a system of fractures and cracks all the way near the surface.

and where they have been found.

This place is where the helium has been detected by the drilling operations.

This is called the at the surface.

This is called the bald eagle intrusion and it goes deep underneath into the south kawishi intrusion which goes all the way down to the to the grenitic rocks presumably where the helium has moved up from.

Now, what traps it uh in these huge big pockets that Pulsar is drilling into to tap?

How how does it what stops it from keeping going all the way up and into the atmosphere?

Good question.

Since helium is a very light gas, it will escape into the atmosphere easily whenever there is a fracture or a poor system through which it can move upward.

However, there are some special instances in this case the layered rocks of the Duth complex which are approximately 1.1 billion years old.

So they are impervious hard ignous rocks.

So in spite of the fact that helium is very very light.

It moves upward but then the layers and layers of ignous rocks protect would protect this gas from escaping onto the surface.

So that is why you would find these places inside underneath the denut complex.

And as I understand it doctor, this is unique in that this helium isn't with uh natural gas but with a different kind of gas.

Explain that please.

Good question.

Well most of the helium that is extracted at the present time comes from natural gas.

comes from separation of helium from existing natural gas reservoirs in the United States which happens to be the largest producer of helium in the world.

Um it happens down in the state of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas where there are natural gas reservoirs and within those natural gas reservoirs there are tiny tiny quantities 321% of helium and that is regarded as extremely valuable.

So if you have 1% helium that is regarded as remarkable but here the the big thing that happens in in here in Duth complex is that up to 10% 10% of helium has been reported and this that's why I say it's a remarkable find and what are the uses of helium that makes it so valuable many uses first and foremost helium is used in the operation of MRI machines so magnetic resonance imagery machines that is used uh in hospitals.

So these um the magnets that operate these instruments require a very very low temperature minus 250 or so that that that low temperature.

But the only way for anything to maintain that temperature is the gas helium because anything else at that low temperature will condense, liquefy or solidify.

So the instrument will need a constant flux of helium to keep the uh instrument operational.

So uh once this helium begins to be extracted uh does this rock formation change?

Is there any uh negative impact about uh taking this gas out of these pockets?

That's the beauty of helium.

No, it doesn't.

Helium is a noble gas.

So it does not react with anything else.

It'll just move up whenever there is a fracture system.

It's a light gas.

It'll just move up through the rocks without any reaction.

Is this find all that rare?

Well, technically yes.

But you know what?

Helium incidentally is the second abundant element in the known universe after hydrogen.

But strangely, helium is very rare on earth.

So helium was formed long long long time ago when the earth was formed.

And then more helium has formed from the disintegration of the radioactive isotopes of uranium and thorium.

So yes, your helium is abundant in the sun and in other stars, but not so much on earth.

Dr.

Joes Darta is a researcher with the NRI Natural Resources Research Institute with the University of Minnesota.

Wow, what a story.

Thank you for being on In Business.

Thank you very much.

Exploration and extraction are only part of the story.

Once helium is produced, it must be moved safely and efficiently to customers across the country and around the world.

In our final segment this evening, we speak with a company involved in the transportation side of the industry to learn how that process works.

Behind us is Jetream 1, the first well that was uh exploratorily drilled for finding the helium that Pulsar hopes to exploit.

Wes Minton is with a company called Chart Industries.

They are out of New Prague, Minnesota, and they make containers and liqufiers for gases all over the world.

Thank you for being with us.

Happy to be here.

Tell me a little bit about uh Chart as a company, how long they've been around, how get they got started, and what your business is.

Sure.

So, Chart Industries uh in various forms has been around for uh almost 160 years.

Uh our new PRA facility uh was originally MVE.

It was bought by Chart in the 60s.

Uh Chart's business is cryogenic gases uh industrial gases.

So we have a large uh I would say majority of the world's cryogenic storage.

Uh whether that's aerospace, industrial gases.

Uh if you go to Chick-fil-A, every time you get a a soda, that's a chart tank.

it's coming out of a lot of your beer.

Uh and then if you look at things like Space Launches, storage of hydrogen, helium, gas to liquid systems is our our ticker on uh the stock chain.

And uh we're a large company, 65 global manufacturing facilities.

Uh but our largest ones domestically for tanks is here at New Minnesota.

Wes Minton is the director of market development for Chart Industries.

explain your partnership with Pulsar and what that could mean for the helium and the CO2 that's coming out of this drill.

We've been working with Pulsar for about two years.

The idea is that the deposit uh of helium here is a CO2rich environment.

Uh meaning that I think it was around 77% we're going to need to clean up uh and get rid of the CO2 before we send the helium to the liquefier.

Uh so that's where I come in coming from the carbon capture space.

Uh we the first line being that gas comes out of the ground goes into a pre-treatment cleans up uh and purified to liquid CO2 that can be used for beverages uh medical industrial uses and then the helium rich stream from that is being sent to our helium liqufier uh to be liquefied and a usable product uh for a variety of industries.

Have you ever seen anything like this?

Is the concentration and the pressure and everything I mean is this common?

So for helium, no, not at all.

This is one of the highest percentage helium storagees found worldwide.

uh I believe the average that you're seeing is around uh globally is around one to two% uh you know there are results from this well uh I you know I as a member of chart I believe up to as high as 12%.

Uh which is extremely high and it's in our backyard.

Wes how important is this as a business development opportunity for your new prey company uh Chart Industries and for other businesses around here?

what does it mean?

So for us, you know, this is a project that fits in with scopes.

You know, we have a large background in LG and large scale infrastructure projects.

Um, as far as, you know, domestic production of helium, it's uh it's a very big deal uh as I believe it would be one of the only primary sources of helium in the United States.

Uh, and with the current status of helium supply in the world, that's a large move.

Wes Minton is the director of new market development for the Chart Industries Corporation of New Prague, Minnesota.

Involved in the Pulsar project here in northeastern Minnesota.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We call it the Iron Range.

Its geological title is the Duth Complex, DC for short.

It has produced incredible amounts of hematite, iron ore.

It also contains rich deposits of copper, nickel, and other rare minerals, and now holds the potential for massive amounts of helium.

The range also produces overwhelming swarms of black flies.

This is a resource that was evident on our exclusive visit to Pulsar Helium's Topaz drill site.

The flies were thick, and they were undeterred by swatting or fanning.

They were relentless.

What we experienced though was just a fraction of the plague of dark clouds of black flies and mosquitoes that held up the discovery of the Msabi Iron Range for 15 years.

While building the Vermillion Trail from Duth to Lake Vermillion, George Stunts found the big blue rock that assayed out at 80% pure hematite iron ore.

You can't make this part of the story up.

Stunts shows the rock to a guy named Stone.

George Stone was an early Duth promoter and entrepreneur.

Together they convince Charlemagne Tower, a rich Philadelphia attorney and industrialist to organize an expedition to Lake Vermillion with the idea of developing the iron ore.

The year is 1875.

They get up there and the ore is everywhere.

The problem is it goes straight down underground and it's going to be hard rock mining.

That means digging, drilling, and blasting at the end of long dark tunnels.

Very dangerous work.

and very expensive.

Now, the early mine owners didn't really mind the danger part, but the expense bothered them a lot.

What they were looking for was what the tribal first nation people called red earth, a soft digable form of hematite that could be shoveled into train cars.

The bigger the shovel, the more you mind.

So, the expedition headed south and west from the shore of Lake Vermillion, digging test pits, looking for the red earth.

They started in March.

Now, it's August.

It's hot.

By this time, there's contention and mistrust among the leaders of the expedition.

And that's when the black flies are at their worst.

The flies are so bad, it's impossible to work during the day.

The men hide in their tents, where the temperatures climbed over 100°.

The test pits are dug at night by torch light and fires.

Finally, they give up and a message is sent telling Charlemagne Tower that if he wants his ore, he's going to have to dig, drill, tunnel, and blast for it.

The expedition packs up, heads back to Duth.

Now, if you follow their journey, as detailed in the book, Vein of Iron, the Pickkins Mather story, you'll see that when they gave up their search for the red earth, they were one day and 12 miles away from a place we call mountain iron.

Mountain iron, the eastern edge of the largest deposit of soft digable hematite ever found on the face of the earth.

It would take 15 more years and the efforts of the seven iron men to locate what the tower expedition walked right past on their way back to Duth.

The seven iron men led by Lyanna deser the merit brothers family of duth.

It took them several years but in 1890 they found the ore that became the Msabi range starting with their first mine in mountain iron.

In tribute to the Anashab, the merits named their discovery Masabi, which means sleeping giant.

The Vermilion was the first iron producing range in Minnesota.

And if it had not been for the black flies, it might have been the second.

I'm Ken Buer.

Thanks for watching In Business.

Now, if you missed any parts of tonight's show, you can always watch it at pbsnorth.org or listen on Mondays at 5:30 on the North 1033.

And if you have an idea for a future story on InBusiness, we'd love to hear from you.

Email us at askpbsnorth.org.

Thanks again for watching and until next time, let's take care of each other.