Hopes for renewed Australian helium production after SA extraction

Three years after Australia stopped producing its own helium, the rare gas that hospitals rely on has been extracted from South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.Gold Hydrogen carried out testing at its Ramsay 1 site, just outside Port Vincent, and managed to extract the gas over the weekend.It is the first helium capture in Australia since the closure of Darwin's production plant in 2023, the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. At the time, there was little concern about a shortage of the gas. But since then there has been a global shortage after about a third of the world's helium supply was taken out by Iranian missile strikes on Qatar's Ras Laffan gas plant in March.Gold Hydrogen's Ramsay 1 site, just outside Port Vincent, has produced helium gas. (ABC Rural: Isabella Kelly)Gold Hydrogen chief executive Neil McDonald said people underestimated the role helium played in their day-to-day lives."It's not just party balloons and squeaky voices. People touch things that have needed helium every day of their life," he said."MRIs cannot operate unless there's helium. And there's a shortage of helium around the world and Australia."Helium is required to help make mobile phones; helium has helped make a lot of electronics, computers. "When it comes to defence, you cannot do submarines without requiring helium."Helium is the second-lightest gas in the world, and this low weight means when it is extracted from underground, it floats up into the atmosphere, never to be recovered, making it a finite resource."Some countries have actually stopped exporting, so there's a world shortage of helium with a growing demand," Mr McDonald said."It's the best cooling agent possible … and you can't man-make helium."Santos's Darwin LNG plant exhausted its feedstock in 2023, bringing an end to Australian helium production, but Gold Hydrogen aims to have a supply commercially available within 18 months.The next stage of testing on site is now underway on the Yorke Peninsula, where gas volume and extraction ease will be assessed, with results used in developing any potential commercial pilot projects.Helium project a 'good thing for Australia'Gold Hydrogen's exploratory Ramsay Project covers a 75,000-square-kilometre tenement on the Yorke Peninsula, where natural hydrogen was first discovered in the 1920s and 1930s.In 2023, Gold Hydrogen reported it had found natural hydrogen and helium on the site.The drilling process involves an almost 900-metre-deep hole in the ground, with equipment initially set up on a "soccer field"-sized area.Local landholder Brendan Moloney, who believes there is further helium on his land near Maitland, has welcomed the project.Brendan Moloney believes there is more helium on his land near Maitland. (ABC Rural: Isabella Kelly)"It's a good thing for Australia," he said.A farmer himself, Mr Moloney was not concerned the project would impact land use."It's only a small area [of land] … it's just all underground."I think as long as there's no fracking involved … it's a good thing. It creates more employment, and it'll take us off the grid. It's just a win-win."