It’s been a whirlwind few days working up to the release of our special hydrogen results and the new $8 million funding boost.

We think it’s important to start by saying we don’t think we can overstate the value of the hydrogen tests.

Having the potential to extract up to 100kg of hydrogen a day per well is significant – think of it like this: behind Mali we could be just the second country in the world to have proof of the natural hydrogen concept. 

It’s something our industry has been crying out for. It will spark investment opportunities, not just for us, but for others needing more touchpoints to get their backers over the line.

Managing Director Neil McDonald is in France this week at the major H-NAT conference in Paris, and you get a real sense of the excitement when you’re in the middle of experts and people who want a piece of you to find out what’s happened and what we’re doing next.

Our opportunity on the Yorke Peninsula, with hydrogen, is appetizing. With the biomass there needed for Green Methanol production, our feasibility study with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical now has impetus. If we were able to produce more than 20 million litres of Green Methanol a year, it would be a commercial plant of real scale.

But first, we will attempt to deliver Helium to market. That’s where the $7.9 million capital raising, which was over-subscribed, is just as important. 

If we can get a modular pilot plant up and running in the next 18 months, it will help fund ongoing testing and expansion across both gases.

It’s an explorer’s dream to have two commercial opportunities from the one process. 

We welcome Eric Sprott on board. His $4 million is, in our view, a great marker for the potential we have. The Canadian billionaire has a record of backing winners. And we thank a number of other investors in this round who have come back for more after early placements in Gold Hydrogen.

With interested parties coming to us, we’ve been able to raise much of the capital needed for the Helium development without having to put an inordinate amount of time or money into the process. We are able to concentrate on what we need to do to start bringing cashflow in.

We hope to set up another webinar in the next fortnight, and we look forward to discussing the path forward with many of you.