Helium One Global Ltd (AIM:HE1, OTCQB:HLOGF) said it is in talks about contracting a drilling rig to begin its phase-two programme at the Rukwa project in Tanzania.
Chief executive David Minchin said the company has decided to return to the Tai prospect after data from a 2D seismic campaign late last year “not only improved the definition of a robust structural closure in the Karoo Group, but also identified an untested closure in the Lake Bed Formation”.
This seismic data and stratigraphic information from the 2021 drilling campaign provided detailed information on distribution, mineralogy, seal potential and grain size of the entire sedimentary sequence at Tai-1/-1A, the AIM-listed explorer said, while multiple subsurface helium shows prove a working helium system.
“With the highest chance of geological success and a robust closure at multiple stratigraphic levels, the Tai prospect gives us the best opportunity to make an economic discovery that unlocks the potential of the Rukwa helium province,” Minchin said.
Detailed discussions with a rig operator and service companies are in progress, the company said, with the objective of drilling the Tai prospect in the third or fourth quarter of this year, before the start of the rainy season.
Helium One reported that a fieldwork programme is planned in the Balangida Basin “to ground truth helium seeps identified in recent multispectral satellite spectroscopy data”, with high resolution airborne gravity gradiometery data to be purchases across the Eyasi and Balangida basins with a view to continue its exploration focus with a maiden 2D seismic campaign targeted before the end of 2022.
It said an international drilling rig survey and inspection company has been contracted to undertake a detailed audit of the proposed rig and its ancillary equipment on location in East Africa.
In lieu of cash payments, some 2,077,284 new ordinary shares have been issued to multiple service providers.