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44 min ago 2 min read
Helium exploration company Pulsar Helium will pursue project-level debt and public sector financing for its planned Rare Gas Hub at its Topaz Project in Lake County, Minnesota.
It comes after Pulsar’s local subsidiary signed an with Baker Hughes-owned Chart Industries for helium and carbon dioxide (CO2) equipment for the project.
If constructed, the facility would produce around 7.5 million litres of helium and over 100,000 tonnes of liquid CO2 annually.
Pulsar said it would seek to fund a substantial portion of the Rare Gas Hub through project-level debt and public-sector financing, with a contribution from its existing unaudited cash resources, which currently stands at around $24.6m.
The company said it is advancing multiple potential financing channels, in parallel, including talks with University Bank, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development, and Minnesota’s Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation.
It expects to preserve liquidity for its other committed work programmes and corporate requirements when determining the amount of cash to contribute to the project.
Pulsar’s net losses widened to [to 30 June] as quarterly exploration and evaluation expenditure rose to $2m.
Aside from project financing, the company is progressing industrial-site arrangements, engineering and installed-cost definition, feed-gas and product-commercialisation arrangements, and manufacture, construction, installation and commissioning.
Chart Industries deal
Pulsar has completed its equipment proposal by accepting the Chart deal.
Pulsar has made an initial payment of around $5m to Chart, with a second payment of $8.55m scheduled for 31 January 2027, subject to further funding. The remaining payments are expected to be made in stages under the commercial framework of the agreement.
Following the second payment, Chart will be authorised to begin procurement of long-lead items, with equipment manufacture expected to take around two years.
Certain equipment for the helium liquefaction system has already been manufactured.
Thomas Abraham-James, CEO of Pulsar, previously said, “The planned plant [is]…supporting our strategy to develop an industrial-scale rare-gas processing infrastructure in Minnesota.”
