Helium One raises £10m to progress exploration activity

The AIM-traded firm said the funds were raised through a subscription and placing of 100 million shares at 10p each, with institutional and other investors.

It said the funds would be used to continue the fast-track development programme at its Rukwa project in Tanzania, and to save “significant” time and costs by keeping drilling equipment in the field to carry out appraisal work immediately following the intended exploration success.

The proceeds would also allow the contracting of 3D seismic over any of the firm’s discoveries, maximising its resource-to-reserve conversion and allowing completion of the majority of the field appraisal programme before the end of the year.

Helium One said its directors intended to participate in the subscription.

“We are delighted to be able to continue the fast-track development of our Rukwa project in Tanzania,” said chief executive officer David Minchin.

“The response that we have seen during this oversubscribed fundraise endorses the confidence that we feel in our assets and planned exploration drilling campaign, as well as giving financial support necessary to contract all appraisal work to avoid downtime between any discovery and economic evaluation.

“The fundraise has seen broad support from a number of institutional and other investors, who support our aggressive exploration and appraisal strategy, as well as the quality and scale of our assets.”

Minchin said helium remained a vital resource, and a “crucial component” of growing next-generation technology-focussed businesses.

“We believe our Rukwa Helium Project is well placed to become a strategic asset in supplying anticipated zero-carbon primary helium into this demand.

“Whilst we are fully funded for our three well exploration programme, this fundraise will enable us to aggressively carry out our appraisal drilling and 3D seismic programme immediately following any discovery.”

At 1100 BST, shares in Helium One Global were down 7.89% at 10.78p.