South African Firm Buys Gas Rights For $1, Finds Helium Worth $12-B

When South African startup Renergen bought the production and exploration rights for some grassy fields near Virginia, a town in the country’s Free State province, the founders were expecting to find small natural gas reserves that could power nearby mining opportunities.

Renergen says it has proven helium reserves of more than 7 billion cubic feet at the Virginia Gas Project that could be worth more than $4 billion. I Photo: Renergen Limited Facebook

They paid $1 for the rights in 2013, according to CEO Stefano Marani, Nell Lewis reported for CNN.

Renergen had unwittingly struck gold. The company says it has proven helium reserves of more than 7 billion cubic feet at the Virginia Gas Project that could be worth more than $4 billion, and potentially up to $12 billion when including further possible reserves.

Condensed into liquid form, helium becomes a cooling component used in the manufacture of microchips and in the operation of life-saving MRI scanning technology.

“We had humble, modest aspirations of setting up a small scale [gas] power station that could deliver a couple of megawatts to some nearby mining opportunities,” recalls Nick Mitchell, Renergen’s chief operating officer.

“We had no idea of the extent and scale and the sheer world-class nature of this helium deposit.”

The company produced liquid helium from the plant for the first time in January 2023. What makes Renergen’s natural gas reserves so special is the unusually high concentration of helium.

Marani says that it averages 3%, and in some places reaches as high as 12%. In contrast, the US, the world’s biggest supplier of helium, has an average concentration of 0.35%, and Qatar, another major player, averages 0.04%, according to the US Bureau of Land Management.

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