BABBITT—Enduring the recent cold snap, Pulsar Helium, the Canadian firm exploring for helium southeast of Babbitt, completed the deepening of its first well, Jetstream No. 1, and began drilling operations of its second well, dubbed Jetstream No. 2.
The wells are part of Pulsar’s Topaz Project, its exploration campaign for helium in the billion-year-old rocks of the Duluth Complex. Jetstream No. 1 was completed to a depth of 2,200 feet last year and extended to a final depth of 5,100 feet earlier this month. The well intersects a helium-enriched zone discovered by a mineral-exploration rig in 2011. Samples collected last year indicate that the gas resource is mostly carbon dioxide with helium concentrations between 7 and 14 percent, which is considered exceptionally rich.
Pulsar collected new geophysical data in 2024 that indicates the helium resource extended at least another 1,640 feet. To penetrate the entire reservoir, Pulsar brought their drilling contractor, Capstar Drilling, back to the well site in December to deepen the well.
During a visit to the drill rig on Jan. 14, Pulsar CEO Thomas Abraham-James told the Timberjay that deepening the well penetrated the entire reservoir, encountering multiple gas-bearing zones.
Jetstream No. 2
“The objective for Jetstream No. 2 is to intersect and go through the same helium-bearing reservoir as we did with Jetstream No. 1,” Abraham-James said.
Pulsar completed the drill pad for Jetstream No. 2 over the holidays, then brought in an auguring drill rig to install and grout a 31-foot conductor casing, according to Abraham-James. A conductor casing stabilizes the top of the well, isolates it from soils and unconsolidated sediments, and protects any shallow groundwater from drilling activities and vice versa. Installing the conductor casing is the last step of well-site preparation.
The site for the new well is approximately a third of a mile south of the first well.
Abraham-James said the target depth for Jetstream No. 2 is 5,000 feet.
Pulsar expects to conduct more gas flow testing in early March to measure how gas moves between the two wells.
“Once both wells are completed, the objective is to see how the gas flows between them,” Abraham-James told the Timberjay. “What you do is open up one of them to vent the gas. The other well remains closed, and it’s got a pressure gauge on it. If you see that the pressure on the closed well changes, it tells you that the two holes are speaking to one another. And that will tell us a lot about the connectivity, porosity, and permeability of the gas resource. That information will go into our resource model and refine our estimates of the production potential of this reservoir.”