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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.