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Saskatoon company one step closer to drilling for liquid helium near Climax

Click to play video: 'Rising helium prices renew interest in Saskatchewan industry'
Rising helium prices renew interest in Saskatchewan industry
Rising helium prices renew interest in Saskatchewan industry – Jan 7, 2020

A Saskatoon-based company is one step closer to starting drilling for liquid helium in southern Saskatchewan.

Royal Helium is looking for deposits of the element near Climax in an area of over 400,000 acres, about 430 kilometres outside of Saskatoon.

READ MORE: Rising helium prices renews interest in Saskatchewan industry

Liquid helium is used for many things, including in MRI machines and for some iPhone and computer parts.

The company said it’s surveyed seven potential drill sites. Those surveys finished Friday, and will determine how many drill sites the project will have to start, and how large of an area will be drilled at each spot.

READ MORE: Canadian oilpatch hopes float on Prairie helium drilling prospects

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The company said it aims to create five to 10 drill sites. It won’t know how many it will have until results come back.

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Each drill site is estimated to employ 10 Saskatchewan residents.

“All of our consulting expertise, everything is going to be locally-sourced,” said company president Andrew Davidson.

READ MORE: Program to clean up inactive Saskatchewan oil and gas sites to create 2,100 jobs

“We’ll be using local drill rigs, local service rigs, local services, our exploration team is local.”

The company is currently going over survey results of the area.

It said it expects to employ more Saskatchewan residents once the project is underway.

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