The President and CEO of Royal Helium says 2021 was an exceptionally busy year, with many big milestones met and exceeded.

Andrew Davidson says wells were drilled in both southeast and southwest Saskatchewan, and there was a major discovery down by Climax, which has the potential to be one of the largest helium discoveries in Canadian history. Royal Helium has about million acres of land and has been drilling near Weyburn, Estevan, Ogema and Climax.

Right now, the publicly owned company is acquiring equipment to begin production. Davidson notes that Royal Helium is the first helium producer to be a public company.

He expects the most exciting advancement for Royal Helium in 2022, Davidson will be getting to the point of actual production, turning the wells on and producing helium to deliver into the market.

The company’s CEO says when Royal Helium does well, the communities that surround them see the benefits too, because of the employment in the area and the trickle down effect with spending in those communities.

He adds that their policy is also to hire locally whenever they can. Davidson suggests that he never tires of explaining what helium is used for, because it’s not just about balloons. Helium is used primarily as an industrial coolant, which its largest single use is in health care for MRI machines.