About
Helium

Helium is a critical mineral that has been plagued by chronic shortages throughout the 21^st century.

Helium is a finite commodity with unique physical and chemical characteristics, it cannot be artificially produced or substituted for any of its applications. The price of helium has tripled since 2010 and demand for helium is expected to continue to rise at a rate of 5% per annum.

Helium is an inert, colourless, odourless, non-toxic gas with the lowest boiling point of any element, and the second lightest, after hydrogen. Helium is a critical mineral in many significant medical and industrial processes:

• – Helium provides the inert atmosphere for semiconductor manufacture
• – Critical in low temperature cryogenics: such as MRI scanners
• – Space industry: purging and pressurising rocket propulsion systems, and for leak detection
• – Welding: as a shielding gas

Helium (⁴He) is produced very slowly as a product of the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. Recoverable accumulations of helium require ancient source rocks and a younger tectonic event to facilitate the release and migration of the produced helium into a viable trap. This process requires suitable geological conditions, significant accumulation time and the appropriate ordering of geological events. Consequently, potential helium resources are limited in number and geography. Hotspur Helium’s team of experts are well placed to locate and secure world-class resources, significant to global supply.

The helium sector has experienced four global shortages since 2006 and is currently in the midst of Helium Shortage 4.0. The sector is unique in that just five plants are currently producing ≈80% of the world’s supply. The global helium supply is fraught with geopolitical risk and helium is highly sensitive to price shocks.

Most of the global helium production is as a low-grade by-product of the hydrocarbon industry. Natural helium is an enriched resource typically found in reservoirs of nitrogen, enabling new, green, helium sources to be produced.

Hotspur Helium aims to unlock new unexplored and undeveloped natural helium provinces, increasing global supply and reducing overreliance on a select number of producers.