Investor update

Jul 10, 2024

Slides

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Helium One Global Ltd investor presentation. Throughout the recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted anytime by the Q&A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received in the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to run the following poll. I'd now like to hand you to Lorna Blaisse, CEO. Good afternoon. Thank you. Welcome to everybody, and thank you for joining today. This is an opportunity for myself, Lorna Blaisse, CEO, and Graham Jacobs, our Finance and Commercial Director, to walk you through our most recent marketing presentation. It's also an opportunity for people to ask the company questions. As already has been alluded to, we've had a high number submitted prior to this event, and there will be an opportunity at the end for further live Q&A. Look forward to taking you through this presentation ahead of our upcoming extended well test at Itumbula West, which is a very important and exciting phase for Helium One. At this point, we'll skip the disclaimer slide. There's a lot of words there, and I'll hand over to Graham to talk to this first slide. Thanks, Lorna, and my thanks. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining. The main focus of the presentation today will be the extended well test. Just some brief information ahead of that. As you are probably aware, we've just finished a fundraise. We've raised GBP 8 million, which will see us through to the extended well test that will take place over the next month or two. We now have 5.3 billion shares in issue, and our market cap at the moment is in the region of GBP 70 million. It's a very heavily traded stock. We trade at hundreds of millions of shares on a daily basis, and that makes it very liquid and very tradable. As I say, the main focus of this presentation will be on the extended well test, and Lorna will now take you through all of that to give you the background details and the operational aspects of what we're about to do. Thanks, Graham. I'm sure a number of you on this call are existing shareholders and very familiar with the story, but hopefully, we've got some new potential shareholders coming in and listening as well. This slide just captures a very high-level overview as to where the company is currently at. We lease just under 3,000 sq km of prospecting licenses across Tanzania in three different basins, the Eyasi, the Balangida, and the Rukwa Rift Basin. The Rukwa Rift Basin is our most advanced technically. The company commenced its first phase of drilling operations there back in 2021, and the most recent drilling operations were completed in February this year, whereby we successfully flowed 4.7% concentration of helium to surface from our Itumbula West-1 well. This was a huge inflection point for the company. There is an established working helium system in all three of these basins as active surface seeps. To actually drill and bring helium to surface in the Rukwa Rift was a huge advancement for the company. What sets Helium One apart from a number of other helium operators globally is that what we have here in Tanzania is geologically unique. It's what we refer to as a primary helium play or project, and by that, we mean there's no association with hydrocarbons or carbon-associated gases. It sits very much within that pure helium concept. Helium does always require a carrying gas to move it along, and a number of other projects globally, that would be nitrogen, methane, ethane, CO2, et cetera, even H2S in some cases. What we have here is very much a pure helium-hydrogen mix, and also with some indications of hydrogen as well. Importantly, helium is incredibly valuable. It's over 100 times more valuable than hydrocarbon gas, with current contract pricing around $500 per MCF of helium. If we move on to the next slide. Thanks, Tom. Again, I appreciate some of you will know this slide inside out and are very familiar with the helium sector. However, some people aren't, and I think this always serves as a very good reminder and positive reminder as to why there is quite a lot of hype in the helium sector at the moment, and why there are a number of new emerging players chasing after this very highly valuable gas. It is a noble gas, and by default, being a noble gas, it has a set of unique properties. As a result, the gas cannot be substituted by any other gas, nor can it be made. It has the lowest boiling point of any known gas, and subsequently is used as a coolant. One of the wide applications for that is in the medical sector for keeping the magnetic coils cool in MRI scanners. It also has a very high thermal conductivity. The application of that is trending in a huge growth sector at the moment, particularly in AI and for faster performance of chips, and also in the electronic sector for manufacturing of electric vehicles, semiconductors, fiber optics, et cetera. Another key property is, again, being a noble gas, its particle size is incredibly small. As a consequence of that, it's widely used for leak detection, and the main application of that would be in space exploration. A number of the space explorers cannot physically launch any rockets or spaceships without having a supply of helium. It is in huge demand off the back of some of those sectors I've just mentioned, and limited supply. It is naturally occurring deep within the Earth's crust, and collectively, we are not exploring to find enough of it to fulfill the current global demand of helium. That compounded with a number of major helium-producing countries being geopolitically constrained, Russia being the obvious one there, and constraints to supply coming out of the likes of Qatar and Algeria has heightened the need for finding more helium and as a result, has driven up the price. There is no market price for helium. It is very much contract-driven and trades in US dollars. I mentioned the contract pricing sitting at around $500 at the moment. There are spot prices that fetch much, much higher prices than that, always potentially as high as $1,000 per MCF of helium. Moving on to the next slide. In the Itumbula West-1 well in February this year, we successfully flowed helium to surface. For those of you who are familiar with the oil and gas sector, this is a large sort of breakthrough that you want to be able to secure when drilling exploration wells. It's great having shows down the hole and indications of gas on your logs, but ultimately flowing it to surface gives you that steppingstone launch into the next stage of appraisal and establishing what you potentially really have in the ground here. We flowed 4.7% concentration, which again, is a huge number, a noteworthy number to draw attention to. The graph on the left-hand side of this slide demonstrates where that 4.7% concentration sits relative to other global helium projects. I want to just point out that the majority of those names to the right of this graph, to the right of the 4.7, we have at Itumbula in the lighter blue, majority of those are in production. They are producing helium fields, and they are all associated with hydrocarbon gases and/or CO2. There is an emerging helium sector. I think we're all very much aware of that. The names that you can see on the left-hand side to the left of the 4.7 at Itumbula are very much indicating some of those emerging players coming through. Some of these are exploration wells. None of them are actually in production yet, but you can see that the concentration of helium is ticking up. Collectively, as a sector, we are learning more, understanding more about this elusive gas and chasing after plays and basins that are going to give us higher concentrations and therefore demonstrate far better commerciality. However, the fields that are in production on the right-hand side, they are in production, but you can see less than 1% concentration of helium. To be flowing 4.7% from an exploration well in Rukwa is a huge milestone for the company and puts us at this pivotal point in sort of hopefully transitioning into a company that can start to feed that decline in helium reserves globally. Just to reiterate that fact that we don't see hydrocarbons in these wells. Helium One have drilled three wells in the basin. Amoco drilled two wells in the 1980s. They were exploring for hydrocarbons. Both of those wells were dry, sorry, and another operator has drilled two other helium wells in the basin as well, also devoid of hydrocarbons. Seven wells with no hydrocarbons in them, and that really does set Helium One apart from other major leading operators in the helium sector. On to the next slide, please. Those of you that have been following us for a while will recognize that the company overcame some challenges last year in terms of trying to secure an appropriate oil and gas-type drilling rig to fulfill their drilling commitments in Rukwa and also for the longer term. For a project to be successful in moving us into the next phase of appraisal and development, we need to be in a position to move quickly on our wells. We overcame that challenge, which was attributed to by a decline in oil price, number of operators leaving the East Africa region, and therefore subsequently for a company our size, proving very, very difficult and expensive to mobilize in a drilling rig internationally. We actually bought a rig. This is the rig set up at Itumbula as we currently know it. It's currently hot stacked at Itumbula West-1, ready to commence the extended well test. It's a truck-mounted rig. It's 950 horsepower. It's capable of drilling depths down to 2.5 kilometers. Not just oil and gas type wells, obviously helium wells as well, geothermal wells, water wells, et cetera. It has huge potential and scope for other projects. We're very much open to leasing that out. It would generate a revenue option to us as well. As a company, the priority remains to be obviously our project and monetizing this project as soon as we can. We have had several operators contact us from the East Africa region who have shown an interest in potentially using this rig. Over the last few months since we completed the drilling on Itumbula West-1, it has been maintained by a small full-time maintenance crew, and it's remained rigged up and ready to go as soon as we receive the last of our equipment at site to get going with the extended well test. What have we drilled to date? The next couple of slides just outline what we've drilled in the most recent drilling campaign. We spud the first well in September last year. This was the Tai-3 well. This was the Tai prospect that the company was chasing after back in 2021, which was initially drilled with a minerals rig that presented a whole host of challenges and problems. We were very much looking forward to redrilling this prospect with a more robust rig, a wider diameter borehole, and subsequently being able to fulfill a complete set of logs and data out of this well. That well encountered helium shows throughout the section. Notably, these shows increased with depth, and in particular, when we drilled into the top of the basement, which we previously hadn't been able to get to with the previous well and the smaller rig. We actually saw a big pickup in the helium shows and the frequency of those, which indicated to us that there was much better potential in this deeper fractured basement play than we had previously envisaged. We were able to recover the first downhole helium sample in Tanzania from this well, and successfully obtained a downhole helium sample from that mid Karoo level, and had a purpose-built, mobilized field PVT lab on-site so that we were able to carry out real-time analysis of those downhole samples, which proved to be hugely beneficial. A subset of those samples have since gone to laboratories for analysis, not just from Tai, but also from Itumbula West, that verifies that our approach at site is sufficient enough to be validating and measuring correctly, which is always a very promising sign, particularly when it takes such a long time to export samples out of Tanzania to international laboratories. It gives us that real-time sense check. The second well that we drilled, we moved the rig and all the equipment and the supporting third-party services about 20 km due east to a completely separate prospect, which was the Itumbula prospect. This had always ranked quite highly in Helium One's portfolio. It's targeting a similar structure to Tai, set up on a basement horst block, which you can see on this seismic section here. We actually made the decision to move the well location off the back of the results of Tai-3 at the last minute because we'd seen those increases in helium shows deep within the section in the basement. The first well we had planned on Itumbula, although it was planned to go to basement, it wasn't planned to intersect the faults. We made the decision to move the well location last minute. We did the civils work so that we could specifically target the two faults that you can see in the shallower section of this slide, where we subsequently wanted to perform drill stem tests across those intervals. That was a decision that ultimately, fortunately paid off. These last-minute decisions are not something companies and management teams and boards take lightly. Fortunately, in this scenario, it was the right decision, and the Itumbula West-1 well yielded some very encouraging results. While drilling, we saw an increase in helium shows and frequency across the faults and also into that fractured basement play. The red stars on this geoseismic section indicate where we then subsequently performed three independent drill stem tests across those intervals. It was while performing the basement test that we successfully flowed the 4.7% helium to surface, as well as a nice 2.2% surprise with hydrogen. Geologically, not overly surprising. The two gases do tend to coexist in these geological environments sourced deep within the old cratonic rocks. Different processes, but a similar setting. We'll certainly be monitoring the helium, sorry, the hydrogen as well as the helium, when we perform the extended well test. The insert map on the bottom right is an indication of an outcrop of basement nearby, that is clearly very highly fractured, and it's this fracture network that we will be intersecting for the extended well test. We'll actually be reentering the well that's currently cased and suspended, so relatively straightforward re-entry. We will then drill out the bottom of the shoe and deepen the well, because we want to try and intersect more of these basement fractures, because that is where the helium is being liberated from those deep-seated hot fluids and migrating up the wellbore. We'll be deepening the well first by about 100-150 meters before we'll get ready to perform the extended well test. Next slide, please. What are we about to do next? What is this phase three drilling all about? Really, it's the company's opportunity to open up the wellbore for longer and execute an extended well test on Itumbula. That is likely to take between 4 and 6 weeks from start to finish, including the deepening of the well. In parallel to that, over the last few months, we've been working hard on bolstering the team. We have a comprehensive subsurface team now made up of a combination of reservoir engineer, development geologist, well test engineers, et cetera, who have been building a very detailed, complex fault fracture model in the subsurface. This is now the play type that we are chasing at Itumbula rather than a conventional, very sort of more straightforward structural trap. It's important that we get the modeling right. That modeling will be integrated with the results of the extended well test. Flow rates, helium concentrations, pressure, reservoir performance data, et cetera, will be populated into a dynamic model so that we can start to determine what sort of resource numbers we will get out of this very complex and potentially extensive fault fracture resource play. The results of all of that work, the subsurface work, plus the EWT itself, will be packaged up and submitted into a feasibility study so that we can submit a ML application to the government, which is a mining license, which will enable us to move into that all-important appraisal and development stage of the project. We're looking to do that very quickly, and that's why we've built the team, and we've been working this in parallel over recent months, so we can move very quickly post-EWT. What is an EWT? Extended well test. This will be plumbed in. It basically allows us to establish what flow rates will be, commerciality of those flow rates, what the helium concentration will look like over a longer period of time. The drill stem test that we previously performed on the well was only open for a matter of hours and days. The extended well test enables us to open up the well for a period of days and weeks. We'll be testing across 2 intervals, so the fractured basement as well as the Karoo, and each of those intervals will take approximately a week each to perform. Plus we've got a bit of time either side for the deepening of the well and wrapping things up at the end. That's why we're sort of putting this 4-6-week window on. At the moment, we're mobilizing crew and equipment to site. Once that's completed, we'll be in a position to start those operations, but we're very much on track to commence them very soon. At site, we will be mobilizing above-ground equipment that will be plumbed into the wellhead. You can see on this slide is a cartoon graphic that represents what those processing trailers will look like at site. In each of those, there's a series of generators, compressors, separators, choke manifolds, et cetera. Ultimately in that outcome vent line, that's where we'll be recording all of the important performance data that will give us those commercial flow rates that we will then integrate into our subsurface modeling. Just stepping back from that, what's happening down the hole, we'll reenter the well, we'll deepen into the basement by, like I said, 100, 150 meters, depending on the density of fractures that we intersect. We will then run a 7-inch slotted casing, followed by a 2 7/8 completion, and then we'll test those two independent intervals in the basement and Karoo. Very exciting phase ahead of us, and we've had very promising indications from the DST and really very much looking forward to seeing what the EWT will deliver. I touched on the feasibility study. This slide just demonstrates all of the precursor work that's gone into that and how we're working extensively in-country and in keeping the government informed of the project and the developments there. The senior management team have spent a lot of time rotating in and out of Tanzania recently, going up to Dodoma, where the Mining Commission and the Ministry of Minerals reside, so that we can keep them very much informed of what the EWT will entail, the timing of that, and how that will then fit into our subsequent ML application. The feasibility piece that you can see in the middle section there and some extracts from all of the great work that the subsurface team are doing at the moment for those models, will formulate the basis of that application. As well as the feasibility study, we're also obligated to submit an ESIA certificate for the region that we'll be developing, and that has to be completed over two weather windows, the wet and the dry season. It was a minimum of six-month requirement to conduct that work. We actually started that back in March, and the teams are about to go out to the field and start the second period of field work, which is just a couple of weeks' worth of work, and then they'll be reporting back on that. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes here. It isn't just a case of executing EWT and done. A lot of integration, a lot of science goes into it, as well as supporting the environmental aspect as well. In terms of what does it mean for the sort of the medium term, medium to long term, with a successful EWT, we'll be pushing ahead with that ML application, securing the mining license which then gives us the green light to start commissioning our production facilities. Again, I mentioned about a lot of work going on in the background. We did engage with a facilities engineering company several months ago who have already done the blueprint design for us of this production facility and what it may look like. They've built that based on the results of the initial DST. That will be updated again with the results of the EWT and the work that our subsurface team will be doing on the subsurface modeling. It is going to be a modular, containerized production facility that we can build off-site outside of Tanzania and mobilize in once we have sight of that mining license. I keep laboring the point, but it is very key across multiple levels, but the fact that we don't have hydrocarbons in the system does very much simplify this design. It makes the whole process a lot easier. We will have to remove water, and we will need to separate the helium from the nitrogen, and hopefully a bit of hydrogen as well. Other than that, it's a very straightforward process. The membrane separation piece separates out the gases. It's effectively a series of sieves. The pressure swing absorption, the PSA, is a very standardized helium processing application. Ultimately, once we've got that purified helium at the end, it will be compressed and put into tube trailers and driven from source, from site. We are looking at ways of smoothing the logistics and bringing the cost down there, and we are entertaining the options of selling at source to put the onus on the buyer rather than us for the logistics side. Again, another indication of a lot of work that's going on behind the scenes for us to move forward with as soon as we can. Which brings me onto the timing aspect. We're due to start the EWT imminently. As I said, we've got personnel, crews, and equipment on their way as we speak. We will be executing the EWT over a period of 4-6 weeks, and then we will integrate the final results of the EWT into our subsurface dynamic modeling, so we can look at those reservoir simulation rates, gas water ratios, and ultimately, the volumetrics and the resource numbers that will come out of that. Because this isn't a straightforward play, and this is another key point here. This fault fracture play is very complex. It needs a lot of careful consideration and thought and work that goes into that. How the gas migrates in the fluids, how far reach and distances those fluids are coming from deep within the Earth's surface, and therefore what those resource estimates will look like in the longer term. It's important we get it right and we do the sequence of work in the right order. Then once the feasibility study is completed, along with the EIA certificate for the environmental work, we will then be in a position to submit that application to the government and hope that that application is awarded sooner rather than later. We are working towards first gas towards the end of 2025. Obviously, the sooner the ML is awarded, the sooner we can pull the trigger on commissioning the production facility. Let's move on to the next slide, please, Tara. I think, like every project, it's the people that can make or break a project, not just in your teams, but also your communities. The Rukwa Basin is in a very remote corner of Tanzania, and where we work, we are surrounded by very remote communities. As a result of that, we are very thankful and grateful to them for their ongoing support to Helium One. There's been a lot of activity in their region. We've got a very good on-the-ground team who keep them informed of what we're doing and what we're trying to achieve. That is reflected in some of the good ESG work that we do with our communities, and I look forward to developing and continuing those relationships with them going forward. Then on the last slide, please. Thanks, Tara. Then we'll move on to the Q&As. I know that's an important part of this webinar. Just to summarize, we are, as a company, very much at this key inflection point. I think the company has come a long way over the last 12 months. To have purchased a rig, drilled 2 wells, and successfully flowed 4.7% concentration of helium to surface is a huge undertaking. I'm very proud of the team and proud of where the company has got to this point. Really this next phase to commence and conduct the extended well test is going to give leverage to Helium One to take the company to its next level. We are unique. We are sitting in a geologically unique region. We don't have that association with the hydrocarbons. We can develop the project and monetize the project as quickly as we possibly can, given where we are governed by being in where we are globally in a remote part of Africa. We do have our own drilling rig, so we can drill additional wells relatively quickly. We have done a lot of precursor work that puts us in a very strong position to move this project forward to production in the quickest time that we possibly can. We're focusing on that project monetization to benefit all stakeholders, and looking forward to sharing with you the results of that EWT and what those results mean for the next steps of the company. Perfect. Lorna, Graham, thank you very much for your presentation. What I'll do is I'll just bring your cameras up full screen for the Q&A. We have received a number of pre-submitted questions, so I'll start with those. Obviously, given the significant attendance on today's call, we may not be able to answer all the questions. We'll start with the first question, which reads as follows: There are a few other helium companies and names such as Helix and Mosman, which are promising not to dilute shareholding. What makes Helium One a better investment than these other companies? Yes. I'll answer that one. A very good question. Obviously, I'm sure you appreciate I'm not in a position to determine investment cases or where are those other companies. What I can state is that the company, we've brought 4.7% helium to surface, which is significant. We have a laid out plan, an EWT that will be taking place over the next few weeks, as Lorna said. The other companies are probably, I'm not going to say definitely, but are unlikely to be as unique as we are in as much as what we have, as Lorna said, is a pure helium play. There are no associated hydrocarbons. There is no CO2. There is no H2S. It is a pure play. It's a unique opportunity. It is in a very remote location. The well site itself is about a 4- or 5-hour drive from the nearest paved road, so it does present its challenges. It is an opportunity given the uniqueness of the project. Perfect. Sorry, Jake. Before we go on to the individual questions, I'm just in the interest of time, I think we were just going to do a high-level summary up front of the two key themes, and then we can continue with the questions, if that's okay. No problem at all. There are quite a few to get through. Certainly from my takeaways of seeing those pre-submitted questions, and Graham and I have had a look, there were understandably two key themes out of that. I think that the first being around the fundraising, which I'll hand over to Graham shortly to address. The second being around the upcoming EWT. Hopefully, some of those have now been answered in the presentation, but I will just do a recap and a summary of that. I think first and foremost, I'll hand over to Graham, and let's just try and wrap up some of those collective questions around the recent fundraise. Okay. Thanks, Lorna. A lot of questions have come in, as we would expect, about the fundraises themselves and the scale of dilution. Unfortunately, while we regret this is quite distressing for our shareholder base, it is unfortunately pretty much outside of our control. Each time we go out to raise money, it's for a very specific purpose. We will be looking rather to take an operation. Previously, it was the drilling of the two wells at Tai and at Itumbula. This time around, it's for the extended well test. If we can't get to those numbers by going out to a retail base, it presents a very serious problem. Therefore, while we're aware that it does cause issues, it does cause problems, it does cause dilution. We are being dictated to by the people who will come in and will put those monies in. They also dictate the price. We have no interest in raising money at a quarter of a penny as we did in December. We have no interest in raising money at half a penny as we did a few weeks ago. We would rather keep the share price up. Unfortunately, as I said, there is very little opportunity to kick back against these fundraises and dictate or determine the terms. As we move forward, as we develop, as we get results back of our EWT, then we're very confident that we'll be able to address these issues and we'll be able to essentially call the shots. At the moment, given where we are, given that we're a relatively small company, given that we are purely exploration focused, given that we don't have any of those revenue streams that we hope will accrue to us in the not too distant future. We are at the mercy of the people who will put in and will guarantee that we'll get to the amount of money that's required in order to move us forward. I think the results of what we've done over the last 12 months speak for themselves. We've moved from a previous drilling campaign, which was, shall we say, less than successful, to a situation now where having brought 4.7% of helium to surface, having acquired our own rig. We are in a very good position to move forward, get through the EWT, and then be able to address the issues that clearly are being raised by our shareholders. What does that look like moving forward? Again, we're very cognizant of the fact that we want to keep any dilution to a minimum. We are certainly hopeful that as we get the results of any EWT, we will be able to start looking at industry partners. We will start addressing potential JV opportunities. Obviously underpinning all that is the fact that we will, at some point in time, be looking to finance this through debt. It's a lot less dilutive. We will be required to make our own contributions with that, but debt is something we would very much like to pursue. We need solid results and we need essentially an economic model that will come out of the extended well test that we'll be taking over the next few weeks. We are aware of the issues that this causes. We are, as a board, painfully aware that it is to an extent unfair on the current retail base, and it is something that we will certainly look to address as soon as we possibly can. Thanks, Graham. I think the other theme was around the extended well tests and the upcoming operations, which hopefully some of the questions have been addressed in the presentation. Just to emphasize, another reason for doing today's webinar today, despite being curtailed by the football. The company, we're determined to push on with that, because it's very important to the company that we have this opportunity to present and offer that Q&A option ahead of commencing the EWT. It is imminent. As I said, we are still mobilizing people and equipment, but we are very close now. That complete operation is, as I also mentioned, likely to take between 4 and 6 weeks, depending on what we encounter and what the results are, et cetera. We will be deepening the well. I think that's the key point. We do want to give ourselves the best opportunity with flowing the basement, and by doing that, we want to be able to intersect more of these important basement fractures. We'll be aiming to deepen by about 100-250 m. We'll then run the 7-inch slotted casing, followed by the 2 7/8-inch completion before getting ready with the production logging tools and commencing the tests across those two intervals, both the basement and the faulted Karoo section. There is a lot of questions around what's the commercial flow rate you're looking for. This is why we're doing an EWT. The DST gave some very encouraging results. However, the well was only open for a short period of time. In order to establish what those commercial rates are out of a unconventional play, fault fracture play, as I mentioned, is not straightforward. We've also got a high percentage of gas in solution, and there is, in these complex fractured and faulted rift systems, that's also plugs into a huge potential resource area. We want to get these numbers right. We'll certainly be integrating the results of the EWT as soon as we can to give ourselves an internal resource estimate. It's not just about the flow rates, obviously. It's also the helium concentration itself as well as reservoir performance. How are these fractures and faults going to flow and perform? I think I recall seeing one question around deviated wells and whether we're going to be doing any stimulation. Great questions. At this stage, because the well's currently cased, we won't be deviating at this stage. It will just be a straightforward vertical deepening. However, in the longer term, as we move into development, and again, the fact that we have our own rig, these are scenarios that we are considering. Stimulation, again, not at this stage, not in this EWT. But again, depending on what the results yield, it may or may not be something we will consider moving forward. I did touch on the monitoring equipment. We will obviously be monitoring real time for the helium. But also because of those indications of hydrogen we have, we are also set up at site to be monitoring the hydrogen as well, as well as any other key noble gases that may reside down there. I think at that point, let's jump back to the individual questions. Some of which we may be able to skip now we've addressed those two key themes. Let's push on and see how far we get, please. Perfect. Thank you very much, Lorna. We'll move straight to the second question. We'll start with that. Why did you feel the need to wait till the share price was at an all-time low before raising twice? And also how do you propose to fund without further dilution to us long-term shareholders? Yes. It's actually cause and effect. The share price was at an all-time low because we needed to fund. The market was aware of that. We had just come on the back of, not to put too fine a point on it, operational problems with the Tai-3 well. That was the first time we'd used a rig. There were some issues with it. We'd previously raised money to drill a second well back to back with that because we could, because we had the rig. Unfortunately, because of the overruns that accrued to that operational issues, the market was aware. We are in a requirement as an AIM-listed company, as I'm sure you're aware, to issue updates on a regular basis. The market, and therefore the world, was aware that we were facing financial issues. We had no choice whatsoever on those numbers. That, again, was the level at which a select group of investors were prepared to put the money into. In fact, that itself was paid back to the box. In the final analysis and discussions and negotiations, we even had to remove the contingency from the number that we actually raised. It was a very difficult time. It was a very tricky time for the company. I'm extremely pleased to say we did come through that. Lorna mentioned earlier the fact that the well location was changed for the Itumbula West well, which was actually a huge decision that was made by the company. Because it did so in the face of a financial issue. Now, the fact that we were low on resources and the fact that we needed to go out, but still the company made that decision to change the well pad. 750 meters or so, but the cost implications were actually quite material. Looking back now, clearly it's money well spent. It was a very difficult and a very painful decision to have to make at the time, but we did so, and as they say, the results are history. Yes, cause and effect. The market knew we needed money. The share price was pushed down as a result of that, and it went down even further when we went out cap in hand to raise the money. Perfect. Thank you very much, Graham. Turning to the next question. Will the planned EWT also do a full flow test on the amount of hydrogen gas that's flowing out of the Itumbula well to determine its commerciality? Addressed that one. We can skip that one, please. Perfect. The next question we'll go to is, will Northstar Downhole Specialists be involved in the testing? No, they won't. Northstar did a great job for us in the DST. They are DST specialists rather than extended well test specialists. That's why we've appointed SLB, formerly Schlumberger, to do the EWT and mobilizing their equipment in Africa to perform that. That's the short answer to that one. Perfect. No problem at all. Another question we've got here. Off topic, but the bulletin board suggests that football is the reason for the switch. Is that the case? Yes, I think that was probably obvious. It was not a decision made by us. It was out of our control. That was LSE took that decision. As I mentioned at the outset, the company wanted to still have this opportunity this week to engage with the shareholders ahead of the commencement of our EWT. Thank you to Investor Meet for turning that around and filling the gap. Yes. Thank you. Perfect. The next question here. Have any companies approached Helium One to form a joint venture or takeover? We certainly have no desire to be taken over. We're very happy with running what must be noted as 100% of these licenses. We have no partners. We are very aware of the need, as some of these questions have indicated, the need for future financing, and we're hoping that we will be able to do that independently. We are, and have had discussions with various players, and we are beginning to show up on the radar of many of the big industry players. Again, going full circle on all this, it's going to be dependent upon the results of the EWT and the actual plans we put in place to move the company forward. We have had discussions. We maintain those links. It is important. At the end of the day, we are a relatively small company. We're aware of that, but we are sitting on what we hope is a vast resource, and we're very aware of the value that will accrue to that. We're cognizant of the fact that we don't want to act too quickly with some of the big boys. We want to maintain our independence, and keep that moving forward until such time as we can dictate the pace of any change. Perfect. Thank you very much. Yeah. Just moving on. What's the cost involved in applying for a mining license? The cost itself is minimal. It runs to just $ a few thousand. The cost of putting together the application is, that itself is quite substantial. As Lorna indicated before, we've recently increased our personnel quite substantially to deal with this application. We do have subsurface teams in place. We have reservoir engineers. We have everything else that's going to work towards the final ML application itself, and also all of the engineering, and economic report stuff that will go with that. That's where the cost is, and that is being funded separately. You will note from the recent fundraise that that was pure operational focused. We did an opportunistic fundraising in February of this year, where somebody approached us, and we managed to agree a deal on raising money for the headroom that was allowed under the AGM that took place in December. That is earmarked as G&A, which will allow us to continue the planning, the processing, and everything else that goes alongside the application itself. The actual cost of the ML is minimal. Perfect. The next question here. What would be the cost of the infrastructure needed in order to collect the helium? We've commenced the early engineering studies on that. There's a firm out of North America that we have been in discussions with now for several months. We're looking at the processing design and the capability of the plant that will eventually be required. It's been designed on a modular basis, so that it's scalable up as flow rates and the number of wells that will be required determine. At this stage, it's very difficult to put an exact number on it, but the headline figures that we currently have in-house are somewhere in the region of $50 million. That's not fixed. What we are discovering as we have early drafts of the designs and blueprints of these engineering studies is that the cost and the complexity is a lot less than we originally anticipated. The process of producing helium or pure helium, once the extraction process is undertaken with water and other gases is considerably simpler and less costly than we were originally hoping or expected it to be. That is a real positive for what the eventual cost will be. Also not forgetting the fact that, as we do keep saying, we do have our own rig. The biggest part of any development is often the number of wells that need to be drilled. The cost to us on that will be, again, being relatively de minimis as our rig is ready to go. Perfect. Do you foresee the use of lateral drilling during field development? Yeah, I think we already addressed that one. Moving on. Do you foresee a joint venture arrangement? To an extent, that's been addressed as well, where we keep our eyes open, we keep our ears open. We remain flexible. If the opportunity arose, and it made economic sense, then we would consider it. At this point in time, we are focused on maintaining our independence. Perfect. Will you be stimulating the present well? Again, addressed that one. No problem at all. Once you receive the pressure/flow rates, what options will there be to monetize whatever the results end up being? Well, I guess on the back of that's when we actually start looking at the full field development, because, I know we keep coming back to this, but the extended well test is going to actually present to us what we have. It'll determine flow rates, it'll determine the amount of hydrogen and helium that we will bring to surface, and if there's anything else that goes with that. That's when we'll have to work out the full processing and the subsequent development. As Lorna mentioned earlier in the presentation, we are hopeful that we actually start monetizing and have first gas cash flows before the end of next year. Perfect. The next question here. Will Helium One look to engage direct hire contractors for the future commissioning stages following a successful EWT, or rely on expensive agency and third parties? Many projects attempt to cut costs in commissioning, rushing to production, and inevitably fail, resulting in expensive and time-consuming complications. As a long-term shareholder, and as an experienced commissioning and completions manager, I'd love to see a proactive approach to the commissioning and recruitment strategy. Very good question. To answer it in reverse, we're not going to rush into commissioning. Clearly we've got one shot at this. We want to make sure we do it right. We do it in partnership with the government of Tanzania and all relevant stakeholders. It's very important to us. It's very important to the country. It's not something that we rush through on a wing and a prayer. It needs to be thought out. It needs to be considered. Things like, as again, Lorna mentioned earlier, the off-take arrangements are going to be crucial at this stage, because we want to keep this as simple as possible. We do not necessarily want to be involved in transportation. We're not a logistics company. With regards to the other point, it is a fair point. Again, I'll just stress the fact we're a small company. Essentially what we do, if we require people, we bring them on as a resource. That may sound fairly mercenary, but until such time as we have sight of revenue and a consistent revenue stream, we use and we will continue to use contractors. It's easier, it's quicker, and it's a lot less complicated than bringing on full-time staff that we have to potentially get rid of when we're looking at the next stage of operations while we're considering them. It's in our thought process, and it's a natural part of the cycle. Perfect. Thank you very much. By how much is the company intending to deepen the Itumbula West-1 well, and what information are you hoping to gather from this part of the operation? Yeah. Again, I mentioned in the presentation, but we'll be looking to deepen by around approximately 100-150 meters, depending on how many fractures we then intersect in the basement. That enables us to get better information out of the fractured basement play, essentially. It's obtaining a more complete data set. Perfect. The next one here is not really a question, but the investor wants to thank Lorna and the team for arranging this in double-quick time. If you had any comments on that. If not, I'll move on to the next question. We appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. We appreciate it sincerely. Perfect. For how long will the flow test actually run, and at what rates of flow do you hope to achieve in order for it to be considered commercial? Yeah. Again, I think I mentioned the timing aspect, 4-6 weeks start to finish. It's very difficult to give an exact timing on it, for obvious reasons, not least just because of the mobilization of people and equipment in the front end, but also the commencement of operations itself. No one knows how long the well will flow for, but we're working towards that sort of 4-6-week window. I think I mentioned in the presentation we'll be testing 2 zones, so the faulted Karoo in the fractured basement, and each of those zones will be tested for approximately a week each. Hopefully that gives some context there. Then I've mentioned what data will come out of the well and how we'll evaluate it internally. Perfect. Thank you very much. Turning to the next question. Thanks to Lorna and the team for your considerable grit, hard work, stamina, pragmatism, and patience in surmounting the considerable obstacles to get Helium One to where it is today. As a long-term investor who's endured six dilutions to their shareholding on the journey, would you please confirm if future dilutions are likely, or can alternative funding be found to move the company through the proposed EWT licensing, building, production, and hopefully income stages? Yes. I mean, to an extent it has been answered. We're very aware of the dilution effect and what it means to shareholders. Our aim is to keep any dilutions to a minimum. We will be opportunistic, shall I say, in use of funds, and anything that presents itself which is of maximum benefit to the company and the shareholders will be given due consideration. Perfect. Thank you very much, Graham. The next question here. Have the management team had any unconfirmed interest in buying Helium One assets in the event of a successful extended flow test? I think that sounds like a takeover type question again as well. Yeah. I think we've addressed. Yes. We'll move on from that one. Perfect. Roughly how long does it take to receive a mining license in Tanzania? What are the complications, if any? Okay, that's a good question. I mentioned in the presentation all of the sort of precursor work that is required to go into that application. We do have a good relationship with both the Ministry of Minerals and the Mining Commission. We are regularly in-country to develop and strengthen that relationship. It is obviously a new sector for Tanzania, which we're all mindful of. They are very aware and up to date of our operational plans and developments. We certainly keep them informed as best we can. From our in-country compliance teams, we do know historically that ML applications can take anywhere from a few weeks to around 3-4 months. We're certainly hopeful that we'll be within that 3-month window of having that ML awarded, which would be great to have sights on that before the end of the year. Perfect. Just sticking to Tanzania, we've had a question asked, what is a day in the life of a drill crew staff member in Tanzania? If you could share some insight, that'd be great. Sounds like somebody's after a trip. A job. A job, yes. I think it's incredibly rewarding. Obviously, I'm not a driller, but I have spent a lot of time on onshore rigs, and our own rig in Tanzania. It's hot, physical, hard manual labor work. At the same time, I think it's incredibly rewarding and an exciting project. This is a growing sector. It's different to oil and gas. Working in any remote crew requires resilience and excellent teamwork. Anyone who has spent time on rigs will know that you can't be there if you don't keep your emotions in check, you don't stay calm, you're not level-headed. You need to think outside the box, be dynamic, problem-solving, et cetera. That doesn't suit everybody, but we at Helium One do spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort in finding the right people and developing the right teams. It's important to me that we have the right team to do the job. I've had the pleasure of working alongside our drill crews, both at Tai and Itumbula West. The majority of them are also local. We have a large local content plan in Tanzania. There's an offer of upskilling and also local employment, not just in country, but also within the communities as well, and we train people up where we can. They're very proud to be a part of this project. That certainly makes my job a lot easier to see a happy and engaging workforce. Perfect. Thank you very much. The next question here. Based on current data, what target share value do you put on the company? Again, I'll let you know after EWT. It's not for us to certainly give any indications of where we think the target share price should be. We would leave that to analysts. In fact, there was a research note that was prepared by Liberum a few months ago in March of this year. We're taking this one step at a time. Clearly, we will be looking to build that economic model, as Lorna has said, and eventually we will be looking to bring in a third party to undertake what's called a CPR, Competent Person's Report. That will then give a valuation, hopefully, of that particular part of the resource. Let's not forget, we have other areas in our portfolio that we're keen to go and start exploring on as well. We just never had the opportunity to do so thus far. That will come to the market in due course. For now, again, it's just a question of focusing on EWT and getting some initial readings on those flow rates. Perfect. I might just turn to a few live questions that have come in. We'll start with one here. Where does Helium One Global aim to position itself within the global helium market over the next 5-10 years? Are there specific market segments or geographic regions that you're targeting for dominance? Good question. Obviously, at the moment, our focus is in Tanzania, and that's where our assets reside. I think any small company is always mindful of potential spreading that risk, diversifying, et cetera. The helium sector is very topical at the moment, and growing. I think we're all mindful of that just by the number of new helium companies that have listed on AIM recently. I certainly would like to see Helium One becoming obviously the number one player in Tanzania, and being the first helium company to move into production and have first gas. That would be a huge milestone for us. I think we are always challenged by our geographical location compared to a number of the other players, particularly in North America, where logistics is much more accessible, it's on their doorstep, et cetera. I think we've demonstrated as a company that doesn't stop us or prohibit us from making good progress, and we'll continue to do that. I think with that slide I showed in the presentation is showing some of the emerging growth sectors and companies coming on board and different concentrations being encountered is just emphasizing and highlighting where the helium sector as a whole is potentially moving to. People aren't shy of entering new geological provinces to chase this elusive gas. I do know that Helium One does have something geologically unique here in Tanzania and would certainly be focusing on prioritizing that first. As a company, we are and will remain opportunistic. Now, that's just evidenced by the fact that, A, we bought a rig, B, last-minute decision to move the well location on Itumbula. We're aware of other companies out there, we're aware of what they're doing. We keep track on them. Obviously at this point in time, as to what you brief. Our focus is the EWT. Longer term, we will remain opportunistic. Perfect. The next question here, can the helium flow during the EWT be captured and sold? It'd be nice if it I hope so. Oh, do you mean? I think they mean at the time of the test, possibly. Mm-hmm. Unfortunately not. We do need the facilities to do that. I have told my director of operations if he could fill a helium balloon, then that would be a nice publicity stunt. Yeah, unfortunately it's not that straightforward. As you can tell, we're certainly looking to produce and monetize as quickly as possible and bring those facilities out to site as soon as we can. There is just a big difference between measuring the flow rates and then processing it to the extent where it can be sold. Unfortunately, at this point in time, if we were to do that, then it would put a big number on the budget. It's just not feasible. Thank you very much. Turning to the next question, can you say anything of your plans beyond Rukwa? Some of that was probably just covered on the previous question. If it's among our existing portfolio, Graham alluded to, we do have Eyasi and Balangida that we would like to start moving forward in terms of the work program. We have been prioritizing Rukwa for obvious reasons. But we certainly, as a company, are mindful of our other prospecting licenses in those regions that do need developing. We're certainly not overlooking that. Okay. Thank you very much. We've got a couple more questions. I'm Tanzanian. How does the ESIA benefit local villagers near this project? Great question. Good to have some Tanzanians on board as well. The ESIA study is very much driven by or guided by the activities we'll be doing in the longer term as we move into production. It focuses on some of the above-ground footprint in the region. Some of the messaging that certainly Graham and myself and our in-country teams are demonstrating to the government at the moment is, although we sit under the Mining Commission, under the mining sector, the type of operations we do with a gas well is very, very different to mining operations. That's something that we try and portray from top down, from government level, right down to local level as well in the communities. We're not doing any open cut mining and stripping large sections of land. We do just have a small well or a small facility on a drill pad. That obviously needs to be reflected in the ESIA study itself. Back to your question, I think there's two sides to that. There's the ESIA piece and then there's the ESG piece. Maybe, I hope I heard it right, you were referring to the ESIA. For us, in terms of the communities and the direct impact there is solely driven or solely focused on the ESG piece and what initiatives we undertake for each campaign to support and work alongside those communities, which we'll continue to do. I guess the ESIA work is separate to, but that complements that. Perfect. Maybe time for one final question. Are those sites on the left of the graph shown that have higher concentrations involved in hydrocarbons? Sorry, I missed that. Can you repeat the question? No problem at all. Are those sites on the left of the graph shown that have higher concentrations involved in hydrocarbons? I think it refers to a graph that you had up earlier on. Oh, on the left. Yes. Either hydrocarbons or CO2. CO2. Yes. All of them. They all contain. I think, as Lorna said, what we have here is the majority of our carrier gas is nitrogen. All of those other producing fields or areas or wells, or exploration activities contain hydrocarbons or CO2, H2S, or other noxious gases. Perfect. Well, I'd just like to thank you at this point. You've answered several questions from investors, and of course, the company can review all the questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses on the Investor Meet Company platform. Just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to you both, Lorna, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? Sure. Thank you. Well, again, I just want to thank the audience for joining today, particularly with the last-minute changes on the timing. I'm grateful to IMC for enabling this to take place today. Hopefully that's given the shareholders and the audience a flavor of what's to come over the coming weeks with our extended well test. I certainly, myself and Graham and the board look forward to providing further updates over the next few weeks as we move into this really exciting phase for Helium One. Thank you. Perfect. Lorna, Graham, just thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Helium One Global Ltd, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all. Thank you.