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With global helium prices hitting stratospheric levels, exploration companies are racing to snap up assets in Alberta in a bid to turn this province into a significant supplier of the in-demand gas.
“It’s a bit of a land rush right now, to be honest,” said Chris Bakker, CEO of Calgary-based Avanti Energy, which recently leased 7,000 acres in southern Alberta for the purpose of helium exploration and is in negotiations for another 12,000 acres in Montana.
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Semiconductors some call the “New World Oil” with massive global implications are in short supply …
And Helium, a gas critical to their manufacturing, is experiencing a supply squeeze that can’t be remedied without new exploration and development.
It’s not just the demand explosion in the semiconductor industry that necessitates more Helium, either …
Helium is a critical gas in the healthcare industry as the backbone of the MRI and the NMR, and a vital component in space exploration, not to mention everyday consumer electronics.
That put this gas in pole position for the next boom. And it could be bigger than the Cannabis 1.0 boom. Maybe bigger than blockchain. Bigger, possibly, than lithium.
The good COVID-19 news is vaccinations in Saskatchewan surpassed 400,000 shots last week. Premier Scott Moe is right: vaccines are our best chance to get out of this pandemic mess. The less-than-good-news, however, is Regina intensive care units remain full and the new variants are spreading to Saskatoon and elsewhere. To their credit, Moe and Health Minister Paul Merriman delivered a stronger message to anti-mask, anti-lockdown rallies in cities and smaller centres like Maple Creek, stating that any such gatherings break public health orders and slow down our ability to get through this pandemic. But how he can more quickly get through all of this as we administer the first shot to everyone during the coming months continues to be a huge source of debate and contention.
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When we think about turning points in Saskatchewan political history, we tend to think about the big days election days, budgets, bills or days with huge policy pronouncements.
We think about Oct. 13, 1961 when the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government introduced the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Bill ushering in nation-defining medicare.
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We think about Jan. 15, 1976 when the NDP government introduced An Act Respecting the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan that ushered in the potash “nationalization” debate that many view as the beginning of the end of the Allan Blakeney era. We think of April 20, 1989 when then Roy Romanow-led NDP opposition began ringing the bells over a bill to privatize SaskEnergy that’s seen as the end of Grant Devine’s Progressive Conservative ad
Mandryk: Saskatchewan may have reached a critical crossroads this week nipawinjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nipawinjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.