Gold Hydrogen Bottles First Australian Helium Since 2023 After 19% Purity Flow Test
Gold Hydrogen flows, purifies and bottles Helium in Ramsay 1 breakthrough
Gold Hydrogen (ASX: GHY) has announced outstanding interim results from appraisal flow testing at its Ramsay 1 well on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. The company successfully flowed Helium to surface, separated, captured and concentrated it onsite using purification equipment supplied by Quantum Technology Corporation of Canada — the first time Helium has been concentrated and bottled in Australia since the Darwin plant closed in late 2023. The program achieved all three key objectives: flowing Helium to surface, proving separation and purification processes, and quantifying reservoir performance, strengthening the commercial development potential of the Ramsay Project.
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A world-class reservoir: what the flow test actually proved
Reservoir deliverability — not the constraint
Flow testing confirmed an exceptionally productive reservoir. The Productivity Index (PI) — the industry-standard measure of how much fluid a well delivers per unit of pressure drop — reached up to 34 bbl/day/psi, substantially exceeding the sub-2 bbl/day/psi typical of commercial low-permeability reservoirs. The well achieved a maximum 2,000 bbl/day rate with only approximately 100 psi drawdown at the rated capacity of the installed electrical submersible pump (ESP), stabilising at 800–1,000 bbl/day for several days.
Flowing bottomhole pressure remained well above the level at which the reservoir would constrain production. The well was limited by installed pump capacity — an engineering variable within the company’s control — rather than reservoir deliverability.
World-class Helium purities
Air-corrected Helium concentrations of up to 30% were measured onsite, stabilising at approximately 19% under sustained flow. Raw Helium concentration reached up to 13% and was still rising when testing concluded. Field measurements are preliminary and subject to independent laboratory confirmation by CSIRO and Oxford University.
These grades place the Ramsay Project among the highest-grade Helium projects reported globally, materially above listed peers. Global commercial Helium projects can operate at purities as low as 1%.
The Quantum Technology Corporation single-stage membrane unit lifted the raw-stream Helium concentration from 5.6% (before air correction) to 50.5% during the campaign. The purified Helium was captured in onsite cylinders and used for proof-of-concept demonstrations, including gas bottling and filling an industrial meteorological balloon at the wellsite.
| Metric | Ramsay 1 Result | Typical Industry Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Productivity Index (PI) | Up to 34 bbl/day/psi | Sub-2 bbl/day/psi (low-permeability reservoirs) |
| Air-corrected Helium purity (stabilised) | ~19% | As low as 1% (commercial projects globally) |
| Drawdown at maximum rate | ~100 psi (at 2,000 bbl/day ESP capacity) | Variable, but high drawdown typically required for sub-2 bbl/day/psi wells |
| Raw gas rate (measured) | Up to ~12.8 Mscf/day | Not applicable (exploration well, rate-limited by pump) |
Managing Director Neil McDonald
“The Ramsay 1 flow test has done exactly what we designed it to do. We set out to flow Helium to surface, prove the separation and purification processes, and measure how the reservoir actually performs, and we have achieved all three objectives. The results indicate future commercial development opportunities and compare very favourably to other Helium developments around the world. For the Ramsay Project we have an enormous Helium potential and we look forward to building on this outstanding result across the remainder of the flow test campaign.”
Why Helium matters — and why supply is tight
Helium is a critical, non-substitutable input across the Australian economy and globally. It is used in:
- MRI scanners and medical imaging — liquid Helium cools superconducting magnets to 4 K, removing electrical resistance
- Semiconductors and AI chip fabrication — wafer cooling, EUV lithography, plasma etch and deposition, and vacuum leak testing
- Optical fibre / NBN manufacturing — cools glass fibre during high-speed drawing and acts as carrier and sweep gas
- Aerospace, rocket launch and satellite deployment — pressurises and purges cryogenic propellant tanks
- Welding — shielding gas for aluminium, stainless steel and titanium
- Leak detection — the small Helium atom detects faults in air conditioning, fridges, gas lines, car airbags and lithium-ion battery packs
- Weather forecasting — lifts radiosonde balloons carrying instruments aloft
- Deep diving and commercial fishing — replaces nitrogen in breathing mixes to avoid narcosis at depth
Australia has had no domestic Helium production since the closure of the BOC Helium plant at Darwin in late 2023 following depletion of the Bayu-Undan gas field, and currently imports 100% of the Helium it consumes.
Global supply remains tight following the disruption at Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility, estimated to have removed between 30–35% of global Helium supply for a period of 12 to 18 months. Reported long-term contract prices have increased to greater than $600/MCF on an all-in plant-gate basis, positioning Gold Hydrogen to help re-establish domestic Australian Helium production.
The commercial pathway: from proof-of-concept to Contingent Resources
Ramsay 1 was drilled in 2023 as an exploration well and completed with 4-inch slotted liner — a sub-optimal design for development that prevents zonal isolation and limits both the size of artificial lift equipment and the rate at which fluid can be lifted. The 2,000 bbl/day ESP used in the 2026 test is approximately one-tenth of the design rate for Ramsay 3 and a potential commercial pilot.
However, the flow test proved the concept across reservoir deliverability, artificial lift, surface separation, Helium purification, gas handling and sampling. An independent assessment completed by Worley (refer ASX release of 20 May 2026) considered three indicative Helium production scenarios for the Ramsay Project and concluded commercial development may be viable with as few as two wells.
The development model — a dissolved-gas-in-water Helium accumulation — is common worldwide and proven commercially, including in Japan (for example the Nakajo gas field, ENEOS Xplora, Japan). GHY strategic investors ENEOS and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical have run dissolved-gas developments for decades in Japan.
Steps toward maiden Contingent Resources
The Ramsay 1 flow test contributes the following towards booking maiden Contingent Resources:
- Flow to surface demonstrated — Helium flowed to surface, separated, purified and bottled; distinguishes a discovery from an occurrence
- Deliverability quantified — Productivity Index of up to 34 bbl/day/psi provides the dynamic reservoir parameter needed to model well rates and design a development
- Concentration confirmed under flowing conditions — Stabilised air-corrected Helium of 19% under sustained flow provides the concentration input for volumetric and deliverability modelling
- Recovery and processing route validated — Separation and purification at surface establishes a credible technical development route
The company has an independent Prospective Resource assessment with a mean estimate of 96 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of Helium (from 21 February 2024 report). Gold Hydrogen currently has no Reserves or Contingent Resources. The company expects the combined Ramsay 1, 2 and 3 flow-test results, with the independent Worley assessment, to provide the dataset needed to book a maiden Contingent Resource for Helium at the Ramsay Project.
The company has modelled the deliverability of a Ramsay-type completion at higher offtake rates contemplated for development. Results are set out below. The modelled 20,000 bbl/day figures are outcomes of the company’s deliverability modelling and have not been demonstrated by flow testing.
| Parameter | 2024 Flow Test (measured) | 2026 Flow Test (measured) | Modelled 20,000 bbl/day ESP |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESP rated capacity (bbl/day) | 180 | 2,000 | 20,000 |
| Gross fluid rate (bbl/day) | 170 | 2,000 | 20,000 |
| Implied drawdown at PI up to 34 bbl/d/psi | 5 | 60 | 600 |
| In-situ gas–water ratio (scf/bbl) | Up to 6.4 | Up to 6.4 | Up to 6.4 |
| Raw gas rate (Mscf/day) | Up to 1.1 | Up to 12.8 | Up to 128 |
| Air-corrected Helium concentration sustained rate | 20.0% | 19.0% | 19.0% |
| Helium rate (Mscf/day) | Up to 0.22 | Up to 2.4 | Up to 24.3 |
Non-Executive Chair Hon. Alexandar Downer AC
“The flow test results from Ramsay 1 are outstanding. Australia and the world need Helium, and Gold Hydrogen has an opportunity to bring Helium production back to Australia; the first since 2023.”
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What’s next: FEED, zonal testing and the road ahead
The campaign now moves to Ramsay 2 for zonal testing across gas-bearing reservoirs through August 2026, followed by Ramsay 3. As part of the overall campaign, flow testing of the Natural Hydrogen-bearing Parara Limestone will be prioritised in the cased and cemented well designs of Ramsay 2 and Ramsay 3.
Ramsay 3 has been completed with cemented 7-inch casing and can accommodate the deployment of a 20,000 bbl/day ESP — approximately 10 times the capacity of the Ramsay 1 test pump.
Subject to the balance of the flow-test campaign and Contingent Resource definition, the company intends to progress an accelerated Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for a Helium-focused development. Gold Hydrogen is assessing low-cost modular pilot options with Quantum Technology Corporation, including vendor design and costings for a modular commercial Helium plant.
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