Blue Star Helium Ltd (ASX:BNL, OTC:BSNLF) has been given the first approved drilling application of any type for a helium well in Colorado, USA.
This means BNL now has the approved permit to drill (Form 2) for its Enterprise 16#1 helium exploration well in Las Animas County.
Drilling is expected to start in January 2022, weather permitting with BNL having selected its preferred rig.
The permit comes just a day after BNL entered into an agreement to jointly develop helium leases in an area of mutual interest (AMI) with private corporations, Vecta Oil and Gas Ltd (25%) and Prospero Oil and Gas LLC (25%) in Las Animas.
This has seen the company's securities as much as 12% higher in morning trade to A$0.056.
Read: Blue Star enters three-way joint agreement to develop Serenity helium prospect in Colorado, US
And two days after it identified significant gas columns in water well drilling at the Voyager and Enterprise prospects in Las Animas.
About Blue Star Helium
Blue Star’s strategy is to find and develop new supplies of low-cost, high-grade helium in North America.
It has chosen helium for its a unique industrial gas that exhibits characteristics both of a bulk, commodity gas and of a high-value specialty gas – considered a 'high tech' strategic element.
Due to its unique chemical and physical qualities, helium is a vital element in the manufacture of MRIs and semiconductors and is critical for fibre optic cable manufacturing, hard disc manufacture and cooling, space exploration, rocketry, lifting and high-level science.
There is no way of manufacturing helium artificially and most of the world’s reserves have been derived as a by-product of the extraction of natural hydrocarbon gas.