LEAD STORY
RMAG NORTH AMERICAN HELIUM CONFERENCE March 22-23, 2023 By Michele Bishop
one of the comments from the more than 300 attendees at the RMAG North American Helium Conference held March 22nd and 23rd. These high-energy two days were packed with speakers, exhibitors, prospects and discussions about all aspects of the helium industry. The exhibit/prospect hall was flanked by two conference halls where talks were presented. The conference was organized by Jeff Aldrich and Mark Germinario as co-chairs with committee support from Steven Tedesco, Rob Diedrich, Ron Broadhead, Sean Brennan, Michele Bishop and Matthew Bauer. The idea grew from a few talks in a conference room to two full days in two concurrent sessions—41 talks and 4 keynote talks in all. Throughout the conference all participants had time to visit the Exhibition Hall where there were 26 booths; six of them prospect booths and twenty exhibitors, some helium exploration companies and some with technologies pertinent to the helium industry. The booths were busy and word is that most of the prospects were sold.
Vol. 72, No. 5 | www.rmag.org
RMAG achieved a great sponsorship response from the helium industry for this conference which helped keep the price of the registration down. Included were Diamond Sponsor Blue Star Helium, and Titanium Sponsors North American Helium, OneGeo.co, Pulsar Helium, and Sproule. Attendees included representatives from US Department of Interior, DOC Office of Critical Minerals and Metals, USGS, universities such as Kentucky, Oxford, and MetroState, the geological surveys of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Manitoba, BIA Division of Energy and Mineral Development, BIA, the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Co., COGCC, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science as well as numerous independents, consultants and corporations. More than 160 entities from Canada, the US, Japan, England, South Africa, and more were represented. Attendees learned that Helium-3 (3He) is cosmic and Helium-4 (4He) is common planetary helium. It is created as 8 non-radioactive Alpha daughter products of every uranium and thorium radioactive decay. 4 He is primarily found associated with natural gas, nitrogen and CO2 in concentrations mostly under 1 mol%, sometimes in concentrations under 10 mol%
“T
HAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST CONFERENCES I’VE ATTENDED IN 43 YEARS OF CONFERENCES!” was just
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OUTCROP | May 2023