By Brian Zinchuk
STEWART VALLEY – For many years, North American Helium has quietly gone about its business, building up nearly the entirety of Saskatchewan’s current and growing helium production. Despite being in business for well over a decade, the company had never held a press conference.
That changed on Oct. 15, when the usually reserved, privately held company opened the doors of its newest helium purification facility, its eleventh, at Stewart Valley, north of Swift Current.
North American Helium’s Stewart Valley purification facility. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
The site is just a few kilometres from the lip of the South Saskatchewan River Valley. It was here that North American Helium, or NAH, found a helium strike worth going public about. After more than 125 wells drilled in southwest Saskatchewan, this location was one to write home about. A very large chunk of the Saskatchewan press corps showed up to do just that.
The event came a month shy of five years after then-Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre announced the Saskatchewan Helium Action Plan. That plan aimed to grow the province’s share of global helium supply to 10 per cent, up from one per cent. Once the province reached around 10 purification facilities, the thinking went, a liquefaction facility here would become viable.
Historical production
Saskatchewan has had small-scale helium production for decades. Four wells north of Swift Current produced from 1963 to 1976 before low prices shut them in. Canadian Helium began producing there in 2014. Weil Group started producing near Mankota in 2016, but its processing site idled a few years later.
NAH began drilling in 2016 northwest of Consul, with first production in July 2020. Its footprint expanded east to Mankota, where it bought and reinvigorated Weil’s shut-down facility. At times when the region’s oilpatch had dwindled to the point of not even one rig drilling for oil, NAH was the company keeping a rig, and the southwest oilpatch, going.
Royal Helium drilled several wells in the Climax, Ogema and Val Marie areas but never achieved commercial production in Saskatchewan. It went bankrupt in 2025. Helium Evolution continues to partner with NAH on several wells in the Mankota area.
For all intents and purposes, Saskatchewan’s helium industry is North American Helium. And as the press conference revealed, the company is ready for the next big step – liquefaction.
Helium is critical
Deric Orton, NAH vice-president of Land & Stakeholder Relations, opened by noting helium has the lowest boiling point of any element and is used in MRIs, cryogenics, quantum computing, semiconductor and fibre optic manufacturing, and rocketry.
“The company was founded by our CEO, Nick Snyder, in 2013. We currently produce about eight per cent of North America’s helium supply,” Orton said. “We operate in Southwest Saskatchewan, where we manage over 9 million acres of helium rights. We’ve drilled over 125 wells, and have an extensive inventory of drillable, seismically defined drillable prospects.”
Founder and CEO speaks
Nick Snyder, chairman and CEO, said, “It’s a privilege to stand here at what is now Canada’s largest helium purification facility, as we mark the start of production from the Stewart Valley plant.
“When we look at what made this project succeed, it really comes down to two things: the right province and the right people. Saskatchewan has the geology, the infrastructure, and the policy environment that allows discovery to move from the first well to commercial production in just 13 months. This is something that hasn’t been replicated anywhere else in the world.”
He credited the Helium Action Plan’s competitive royalties, processing incentives and practical approach to tenure, along with the landowners, contractors and service companies of Swift Current and area.
“This one facility is producing at a rate of approximately 75 million cubic feet per year, more than one per cent of annual global helium demand. And based on reserve evaluation, this is now the largest helium field ever discovered in Canada. This one plant, alone, is projected to generate royalties to the province of over $30 million over the course of its production life.”
“Increasingly, when people think of helium, they think of semiconductor manufacturing and nuclear power and space exploration, not just party balloons,” Snyder said. “This is an essential critical mineral with an annual market size that is equal to the combined annual market size of every rare earth element combined.”
Liquefier coming
Snyder then turned to the next step, the one first discussed with the Helium Action Plan five years ago.
“With Stewart Valley on stream, we now have the regional production base to support Canada’s first helium liquefier, which we intend to locate in the town of Swift Current. That next step will improve efficiency, reduce emissions from trucking, and strengthen the overall economics of the industry in this part of the province.”
$700 million invested
Minister of Energy and Resources Chris Beaudry said NAH has invested approximately $700 million in Saskatchewan over the past decade.
“Today, Saskatchewan accounts for more than 95 per cent of Canada’s helium production. North American Helium played a major role in making that possible,” he said.
Beaudry thanked Snyder for his role in a provincial trip to Ottawa. He then raised an issue that has been significant for a while now. Helium does not qualify for flow-through shares.
“Right now, helium does not receive the same treatment as other critical minerals under federal tax structures. That creates a disadvantage for companies investing in exploration and development, and it risks holding back an industry where Canada has a real competitive advantage,” Beaudry said. “We will continue to make that case to the federal government.”
According to RiggerTalk.com, on Oct. 16 Savanna Drilling Rig 629 spudded a well for NAH about six kilometres north-northwest of Stewart Valley, just on the edge of the river valley. That is about 22 kilometres northwest of the new facility. Snyder said a second rig will go to work this winter.
Local voices
Swift Current MLA and Minister of Education Everett Hindley called the project a resurgence for southwest Saskatchewan. He recalled moving to Swift Current in 1996 and being surprised to learn there had once been a helium plant just north of the city.
Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal said the project reflects the growing confidence companies are placing in the region. He welcomed the liquefier news and said he hopes the coming federal budget changes the tax treatment for critical minerals.
He thanked NAH for its $100,000 donation to the Southwest Facility Foundation, pointing out that some other large businesses, such as Walmart, do not make similar contributions.
Questions
Pipeline Online asked whether NAH is actually going to build a liquefier, or just saying the region is ready for one.
“I’m saying we are actually going to be building one. We are not making the official announcement today, but stay tuned on that,” Snyder said.
He said a liquefier would cost “in the neighbourhood of $100 million,” and he was pretty sure it could be done in under two years. He noted the company is not yet announcing that it is shovel-ready and fully funded. Asked why now was the right time, he replied, “I thought the right time was two years ago, but things take longer than I would like.”
NAH currently trucks high-capacity tube trailers to the United States, where liquefiers have excess capacity because U.S. production has been falling for years.
“I think we can all appreciate the efficiency if we were taking them down to Swift Current instead,” Snyder said.
The war with Iran, which saw that nation hit major helium production facilities in Qatar, has greatly disrupted global helium markets. Snyder said it has created the fifth global helium shortage in the last 20 years, one that “sends prices higher, and it sends people to our door.
“But we’re not building this industry for a shortage.”
Outside Western Canada, he said, no new helium discovery has been commercialized in North America in 50 years, and production has fallen every year.
“Liquid helium is perishable; you can only keep it in a container for 45 days. So, this isn’t like copper, where you can put it in a warehouse,” Snyder said. Chip manufacturers in places like Korea and Taiwan need a reliable source, and this region, right along the Trans-Canada Highway, can be one.
Many more facilities to come?
Snyder alluded to dramatic expansion ahead. A liquefier, he said, “is going to really improve the economics for building 10, 20, 30, 40 more facilities like this one, and that’s really where we’re going to see a big impact on the region.”
He described the business as a cross between oil and gas and mining. Stewart Valley is sized for 12 million cubic feet per day of bulk gas, mostly nitrogen. But that gas carries roughly twice the helium of some of NAH’s other facilities.
“Same capital cost, same amount of energy use … you’re producing more from less, and that’s what we need to be doing here,” he said.
The company has been building two purification facilities per year. Next year, Snyder said, he’d like to be inaugurating a new biggest facility, one not yet identified.
On the province’s 10 per cent target, he said, “That’s certainly a goal that we’re aiming towards. But I said we’re in the second inning earlier. If we can get there by 2030, maybe we’re in the third or fourth. I think this is a very long-term opportunity, and until they change the laws of physics, this is only going to get more important.”
Article edited down for length.
Used with permission.