Changes in the global helium market have sparked an exploration rush in southern Saskatchewan, where the gas can be found in the province's Precambrian basement, trapped in rock about 1.8 billion years old.
Not just the stuff of birthday balloons, helium is a workhorse of an element, supplying an industry worth an estimated $4.7 billion U.S.
The gas gives airships a lift and helps deepsea divers breathe safely. It's also used in rocket engines, nuclear plants and MRI scanners, and has a growing number of high-tech applications.
In the 1960s, when helium was considered a strategic military resource, the U.S. government built up an underground stockpile near Amarillo, Texas.
That reserve has supplied almost three-quarters of U.S. demand, but the government has said it wants out of the commercial helium business by 2021.
And as the stateside supply dwindles, it appears industrial gas companies are looking north to fill the gap.
Saskatchewan issued 59 helium leases in 2016 alone, in contrast with none the year before.
Industry workers been mapping where helium is likely to be found by analyzing the data from wells drilled by oil and gas exploration companies over the years. Helium, they say often turns up in the same neighbourhood.
That's what Weil Group Resources found when it tapped two old natural gas wells near the village of Mankota, in southwestern Saskatchewan.
Earlier this year, the Virginia-based company started up a high-grade helium-processing plant in the area.
The facility has the capacity to produce 40 million cubic feet of helium a year — a small fraction of the estimated six billion cubic feet the world uses annually.
