Helium company has production facility installed near the Hat, plans expansion

By Collin Gallant on October 30, 2024.

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One of the first firms to promote helium exploration in the Medicine Hat region six years ago says it has installed a new proprietary production facility near the city and is planning an expansion.

The Weil Resource Group told the News in 2018 that it was bullish on the prospects to find the rare, lucrative material in southeast Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.

That, said Jeff Vogt, head of the Virginia-based company, would eventually require larger processing facilities – a move that largely aligned with a City of Medicine Hat energy division’s goal of centralizing the then-infant helium sector in the southeast.

This week, Vogt announced at a helium conference in Texas that a modular refining plant designed by the company is installed and operating near Dunmore, and expansions are planned.

“We started in (Mankato, Sask.) about 10 years ago and have been steady Eddy since then,” Vogt told the News on Tuesday from the Helium Super Summit being held in Houston this week.

“We sought out to develop the (plant refining process equipment) several years ago. We’re up and producing (at Medicine Hat), plan to expand there and then move on to other projects where we have land position.”

Vogt says a second well near the Hat production site is planned on land where it has subsurface rights east of the Hamlet of Dunmore.

“We’re happy to be part of the Medicine Hat community, and trying to help out the local economy,” he said.

Weil also states it has project areas in northern Montana, including a site near Rudyard, Mont., west of Havre in Hill County.

Weil began operations with production near Mankato, Sask. in 2015, but was also exploring in southeast Alberta.

At the time the City of Medicine Hat also put its deep oil exploration program at targets that it felt also had helium potential (it eventually farmed out several wells), but city officials promoted the economic benefits of being central to a Western Canadian exploration base.

Helium drilling is similar to natural gas exploration, but is typically measured as less than 2 per cent of volume produced from wells, along with methane or nitrogen.

That requires filtering and concentrating processes mostly onsite, and such plants can be costly to build, upwards of $20 million according to some projects of publicly traded companies.

Weil, which is privately held, is not disclosing cost estimates for the Medicine Hat plant, but Vogt said its modular nature and ability to move sites makes it much more “cost effective” comparatively.

Weil also uses its own network, equipment and containers to transport the hard-to-move element to customers.

It is formed naturally deep underground and migrates over time to the surface and eventually to outer space due to its light, lifting nature.

Helium production companies seek out dome-shaped formations of heavy, non-porous rock where the gas becomes trapped and concentrated.

The stable, non-flammable gas is used in high-tech manufacturing, welding and high-power computing.

The announcement is the second of 2024 regarding a production site investment near Medicine Hat.

This summer, Calgary-based Global Helium announced it had found proven amounts of the rare element in two wells near Medicine Hat.

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