Exclusive: Former Helium One chief chooses London’s AIM to float new venture
The former chief executive of Helium One is planning to launch a new exploration company in London this month, Morning Wire can reveal.
Helix Exploration is hoping to be admitted to the AIM market in the second quarter of 2024, with a pre-money valuation of £4.27m and a target raise of around £7m.
However Morning Wire understands that its investor order book has been filled to the tune of £22m.
The firm said it has identified a series of proven helium deposits across three sites in the Ingomar Dome region of the US state of Montana, with total volumes between 856 million and 2.3bn cubic feet.
The firm’s chairman, David Minchin, who served as chief executive of Helium One for two and a half years until 2023, said the time has come for large scale helium production to be brought online with prices currently elevated due to and under-served market.
“We have chosen to list in London because we believe it is the pre-eminent market for growth resource companies with a deep pool of investors, talent and very high standards of governance,” he told Morning Wire
“London remains a world-leading capital market for small-cap companies and we think now is the right time to invest in the identification of new sources of primary helium supply.”
Minchin led Helium One to secure long-term drilling contracts in Tanzania before his departure in February last year.
The stock was one of the best-performing shares of 2024, up 411 per cent in 2024 to a high-point of 2.85p at the outset of February.
However, over the last 12 months, the share price has fallen a total of 80 per cent and as of today, its shares are trading at 1.28p.
Helix Exploration expects to hit production in the final quarter of next year.
It estimates a 12-month timeline from first discovery to first gas production through the use of a $12-15m (£9.4m-£11.7m) processing plant.
The US is one of the world’s largest suppliers of helium, which is a key component to medical devices such as MRI machines and high technology manufacturing including space and defence equipment.
Behind Texas, Montana as well as Colorado and Wyoming hold the largest reserves in the country but supplies have been constricted in recent years, leading to the medical academics in the country recently claiming that the cost has increased by over 400 per cent in five years.
The largest reserves elsewhere in the world are in massive underground pockets in parts of Algeria, Qatar and Russia.
Bo Sears, CEO of Helix Exploration on Admission, added: “Helix Exploration offers investors an opportunity to invest in a proven management team operating in an area of known helium occurrences in the United States.”