Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Helix Exploration PLC Annual General Meeting. Throughout this recorded meeting, attendees online will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that's just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press Send. I would now like to hand you over to Chairman David Minchin. David, good afternoon, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone, and good morning to our American colleagues. I'd like to welcome everybody to our first annual general meeting of Helix Exploration, and thank you all for taking the time to join us today. My fellow directors in attendance are Bo Sears, Ryan Neates, Greg Peters, and Keith Spickelmier, so we have a full house. Firstly, I'd like to confirm we have a quorum present, and therefore I declare the meeting duly constituted and open. I now seek permission of shareholders to proceed with the business of the meeting. If there's no objections, we will continue.
None.
Before we proceed with voting, I'd like to invite any questions on the resolutions as they're about to being proposed. Please raise your questions now, and we'll address them accordingly. No? In that case, thank you for no questions. We'll now move on with the voting results for each resolution. Voting will be conducted in the room by a show of hands. Shareholders wishing to vote in favor or against a resolution, please raise your hand accordingly. The proxy results received ahead of the AGM will be announced in percentage terms, and more detailed figures can be obtained from the company secretary upon request. Resolution one is to receive and adopt the company's annual reports and accounts for the financial year ended third of September 2024, together with the directors' report and the auditors' reports on those accounts.
If I could have a show of hands in the room. That's unanimous in favor here. None against. The proxy results as follows. Votes in favor, 100%. 28,016 votes were withheld. I declare the resolution carried as an ordinary resolution. Resolution two is to appoint Kreston Reeves LLP as the auditors to the company. If I can have a show of hands. Those against. It's unanimous in the room. The proxy results as follows. Votes in favor are 100%. 79,268 votes were withheld. I declare the resolution carried as an ordinary resolution. Resolution number three is that the directors be authorized to determine the auditors' remuneration. If I can have a show of hands in the room for those in favor. Those against. That's unanimous vote for those in favor.
The proxy results as follows. Votes in favor is 100%. 1,633 votes were withheld. I declare the resolution carried as an ordinary resolution. Resolution number four is that the directors be authorized to allot shares. Further details can be found within the notice of the AGM. If I can have a show of hands in the room. Those in favor. Those against. It was passed unanimously in the room. The proxy results as follows. Votes in favor, 97.51%. Votes against, 2.49%. 89,728 votes are withheld. I declare the resolution carried as an ordinary resolution. Resolution number five is that the directors be authorized to waive preemptive rights, further details of which can be found from the notice of the AGM.
If I can have a show of hands in the room. Those in favor. Those against. It was passed unanimously in the room. The proxy results as follows. Votes in favor, 97.04%. Votes against, 2.96%. 629,767 votes were withheld. I declare the resolution carried as a special resolution. That concludes the formal business of the AGM. I'd like to thank everyone in the room and online for attending and for your continued support. If there's no further questions or comments, I declare the formal part of the meeting closed. I will hand over now to my friend and our CEO, Bo Sears, who will take this opportunity to run everyone through an AGM investor presentation. Bo, over to you.
Great. Thank you, David. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Bo Sears, CEO of Helix Exploration. Very happy to be here. Thanks for joining us. Let me just go ahead and start by giving a little presentation here of our operations. I'm excited to answer any questions anybody may have at the end. You know, ask away. Here we go. All right, our approach really is quite simple. It's just to build a company and start producing helium. That's, in essence, exactly what we're here for. That's exactly what we've done. We have done everything that we have needed to do in a very timely manner. I think you'll see everything that we've done inside of a year has been quite incredible.
You know, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this particular slide because I think most people on this meeting understand the importance of helium and its growing needs, especially as the semiconductor industry is, you know, increasing production. Especially here in the United States where the CHIPS Act is still alive and well. A lot of production is moving to our shores, so it makes sense to have domestic helium production as opposed to the United States relying on helium from Qatar or Russia or Algeria, where obviously geopolitical concerns are quite aggressive. We've been very busy. Ever since the IPO, inside of one year, we have drilled two holes, the Clink # 1 and the Darwin # 1. Let's see if I can make this bigger so I can see.
We have done quite well. The image you see here is the Clink # 1 well. Right after we drilled the Darwin # 1. The Darwin obviously is now our marquee project. We had incredible results. For those of you who have not seen the video of the well flowing, it is quite aggressive. With that production, we bought a PSA plant for only $500,000. New, that plant should cost us near $4 million. We got a really nice deal on that. We just acquired the Weil # 1 well and the neighboring section of land, 640 acres.
Really quite excited about that, so we will re-enter that well, reperforate the grand interval and get more flow. Right now it's capable of producing 2 million gross cubic feet per day. We are completely funded. We're ready to roll. We have the plant waiting on the membranes, waiting on the compressors, and we're ready to go. Just a quick summary of the Rudyard field. If you look at the map on the right-hand side, you will see three stars. The top right is the Darwin #1 well. Darwin # 1 well, that is the well we just drilled.
The Weil # 1 well to the west is the well we just acquired, and the Linden number one below the Darwin is the well that we are about to drill, pending approval from the Montana Board of Oil and Gas. The zone that we're targeting is huge. It's nearly 250 feet. We perforated the entire column at the same time, and we didn't even have to swab the well to clean it up. It started flowing immediately. That should tell you how pressured the zone is. We had the gas analyzed. We had 1.1% helium with the balance being principally nitrogen. From a processing standpoint, it's quite easy in that we don't have to deal with hydrocarbons or any other in this case, pollutant. So our...
We're going after helium as a primary constituent as opposed to its traditional recovery as a secondary or tertiary target. The plant is under construction. We have posted images of that plant on social media. You can see that, and we should be ready to produce helium here very soon. You know, hopefully by the end of summer, if not, very early fall. Now, the economics of Rudyard are really quite excellent. The flows of the well were really just spectacular. When we drilled the well, we actually anticipated that we were gonna be down dip from the Weil # 1 well. We were actually up dip. That means that the field was much larger than we had really ever anticipated.
That changed the entire previous reserve report from Jim Weaver and Aeon Consultants. With that, we quickly acquired that plant for $500,000. We can produce 48, you know, million cubic feet of gas a year with a plant that has historically produced helium at five nines purity. We're fully funded into production. We will have, after the drilling of the Linden #1 , three production wells. We anticipate drilling, you know, six to eight more wells as we continue to roll. With these wells being put on production, we will be able to grow organically at this point. You know, peak sustained cash flow of $15 million-$20 million per year. This is a really nice project. Again, we're fully funded into production.
This picture here is the testing of the Rudyard well. We have completed the acquisition of the Weil # 1. We have secured additional leases. We are securing even more leases right now. It is in process. We'll work on the gathering system, the pipeline to feed the wells and to the plant. We will finish the Xebec plant and start selling our helium to offtakers. The picture here is our plant. This plant can produce five nines helium. This is exactly what our end users need. Anybody that shows up with two trailers for transport away, they need to fill their trailers with five nines helium or higher.
The objective is to take our three production wells, the Darwin, the Weil, and the soon to be Linden # 1, and deliver that to this a central location where a membrane unit will be installed, and then after the membrane, this plant and the PSA will process that helium up to five nines purity, and we'll start helium sales. Going forward, we're able to grow organically, as I just mentioned. We'll get six to eight more wells, possibly even more. The wells are very, very inexpensive to drill, by virtue of we have a drilling rig in our backyard, so mobilization is oftentimes a very large portion of the exploration cost. In our case, it's quite small, $1.3 million well cost.
Historically, these wells would cost about $2.3 million or $2.4 million. We're able to grow with cash flow, and we can support company growth. This is just a quick slide of what we've done. We acquired the Rudyard project in June of 2024. That was a heck of a deal. $250,000, 60% shares, 40% in cash. We have already proven reserves. We have acquired a Xebec plant for $500,000 in cash. New plant costs inclusive of membrane would cost about $5 million. We just acquired the Weil # 1 well for $300,000 in cash. All systems go on our end.
The acquisition of the Weil # 1 well is actually quite incredible because all we really have to do is turn that well on, and we can start producing. We are gonna go reperforate a larger interval just to see if we can get more gas, but that well has already been drilled, so we effectively paid $300,000 for a well that would normally cost $1.3 million. Very quickly on the Ingomar Dome, although we've had non-commercial flows out of the Charles recently, the Flathead still remains an incredibly lucrative target by virtue of its very high helium and hydrogen. Now, if you just Google natural hydrogen, you will see it's all the rage right now.
I'm actually in Washington, D.C., where I spoke at the Department of Energy's ARPA-E convention, and natural hydrogen is a lot of money being thrown into it. Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures invested $90 million with a group called Koloma, who has raised upwards of $300 million for the pursuit of natural hydrogen. Our gas in the Flathead has the highest natural hydrogen percentage anywhere in the United States. We have generated a lot of interest. We cannot do anything right now because we are under sage grouse stipulations. We can go back after the Clink in June 15th of this year and perhaps bring in natural hydrogen partners on this project. We're still very encouraged by Ingomar Dome.
Right now, I know everybody's thinking about our share price, and to that, all I can say is we have done everything on time, on budget, and we are literally about to be on production. We're fully funded, I would say undervalued at this point, but the sentiment is very encouraging from the folks we have spoken with. They're very encouraged by the prospect of production here in the near term. That's all I have. Thank you very much for joining us today. We are very encouraged, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Okay. Thank you both. We have some questions which have been pre-submitted. We are checking now as well to see if any have come in during the presentation. I would like to hand over to Emily Hall of Camarco, who's going to manage this section of the presentation and ask questions of the management team.
Thanks, David.
Emily.
There are a few questions that were similar, so we have put them together. First question, pre-submitted, when are we due final results from Aeon regarding the southern dome at Rudyard?
The southern dome, we need to drill a well in there to really understand the difference between the northern dome and the southern dome. The southern dome has not been tested. There has been no deep wells drilled there. However, the structure is higher on the southern dome. We believe that if the geological conditions are similar, then we should have equal or better results on the southern dome. We're unable to provide any sort of reservoir estimate until we have hard data.
Great. Thank you. How confident are you that each well at Rudyard will achieve the $4 million per year post-tax figure, more based towards current production wells at Darwin #1 and Weil #1?
Very confident because with Aeon's report and the flow test results, we can determine how long and at what rate we can produce these wells. Right now with the success of the Darwin # 1 well, the entirety of the Rudyard field, which spans two townships, is prospective. They effectively become development wells rather than exploration wells, and the difference being the risk component. We have de-risked this project substantially.
Great. Thank you. Just staying on the Weil #1 well, how were you able to secure Weil #1 so cheaply despite its proven and high value?
Well, it's a good question, and the reason is because we got control of the entire anticline. We farmed it out, and so they were effectively held hostage by that, by that one section. There was no one that was gonna come in there and buy it other than us. Fact of the matter is, if somebody else were to come in there and buy that asset, they would have to feed that gas into our plant. We were in a position of tremendous leverage, and it took a little while to get that deal done, but we got it done. It's a great deal.
Great. How many wells do you plan to drill at Rudyard, and when?
Our primary goal is to get these three wells into production first and see what you know there's gonna be some initial testing through these plants and you know turning the right knobs and making sure that we're getting the purity that we want. Once we start our sales process of helium, we will start staking new locations acquiring more acreage. The entirety of the zone, or the entirety of the Rudyard Field is literally open for production. One well will hold 640 acres spacing one sq mi, so one well can drill a very large area of acreage.
Thank you. There are, a couple of questions around the latest update on the membrane construction at Rudyard.
Sorry, Emily, repeat that question one more time.
What is the latest update on the membrane construction at Rudyard?
Okay. Everything is working well. We have put the membranes on order. Compressors. The plant is virtually done. Once we get all of those pieces aligned, we will, you know, we'll secure the land, we'll build the pad, put the plant on site, put the building over it, and build the gathering system to that plant. Everything seems to be on time right now.
Fantastic. What is the earliest that you think that you might achieve helium production?
Soon. Very soon. The target is end of summer. It could be early fall. It's just dependent on logistics at this point. All the machinery is there. All the machinery has been done on the plant. The long lead item in any of this is the membrane and compression, so all systems appear to be fully intact, and we should be ready to roll.
Have you got any offtake agreements in place yet?
None yet. That's our goal to not enter into any long-term contracts yet. We wanna test the market and find the best price for our helium.
Are there any further leases around Rudyard that might be for sale?
That's an unusual question. Everything is for sale. It's not posted anywhere. I guess from a sale perspective, all we do is approach the mineral owners and ask them to lease. That is what we are doing right now. We have acquired some additional leases. We are acquiring more leases right now, with the landman on site now, in fact. If Rudyard continues to grow, we will acquire more leases surrounding the Rudyard acreage.
Just sticking on the M&A theme. Once we get cash productive, will you look to invest in fields elsewhere in the U.S. or maybe the world? There are certainly some poorly managed licenses in East Africa that will be up for grabs.
Yeah. We are open to all, any and all, review of any other project. It has to make sense for us. We don't want to blindly go into any area where we think getting into production is going to take decades. That's something that really doesn't have much interest to us. Near term production, especially here in the United States, is of primary pursuit. We are not averse to looking elsewhere in the world for helium, as long as we can get it into production in a short period of time. We have looked at several deals, you know, right now our focus, our primary focus is getting what we have into production now.
Great. Just moving on to some more of the financial questions. What are your realistic hopes for the share price this year?
Higher.
I think it's fair to say that, you know, your a production company would normally be trading at sort of, you know, four or five times its annual income. We're currently trading at sort of 1.5 times what our planned cash flow will be. I think there's opportunity for a re-rating, as we move from this development stage into the production stage. You know, it's impossible to predict what the market says, but as Bo said, higher.
Yeah. We are very encouraged. Again, we have no control over market conditions. All we have control over is operations.
Yeah.
We're running on all cylinders. We're really quite excited.
Will there be another placing or fundraise in the foreseeable future?
Right now we are fully funded. We don't anticipate any additional raise. The only thing I will say is if the Clink # 1 well comes in much higher than anticipated, it might require more compression. Otherwise we are ready to roll.
Great. As the firm doesn't have any debt and will be cash flow generating soon, what is your view on dividends versus buybacks to return cash to shareholders?
It's something we will consider obviously. We want to. We're doing this for our shareholders. We want our shareholders happy. We're very grateful to the ones who stayed with us and are in it right now. We are gonna look at all options with regards once we start cash flowing and see what makes sense for our company and our shareholders.
Yeah. It's a balance between reinvesting in the company for growth and distributing capital back to shareholders. I think we're in an incredibly fortunate position that you know, within 18 months from listing the company, we will be a cash generating company. It's certainly a problem that we like to have, what to do with the money that we're making rather than so many other companies, namely who are sort of struggling to keep the lights on. It's a problem that we want to have.
One shareholder has asked, "Can I visit Rudyard?
Come on. Bring a fly rod. Absolutely.
Finally, I think this is a question from someone in the room, but how is Helix Exploration thinking about innovation in its operations and strategic growth? What role does the company see for fresh perspectives in addressing industry challenges?
That's a good question. Interestingly, again, I mentioned I'm in Washington, D.C. right now. I spoke at the ARPA-E convention, the Department of Energy's ARPA-E, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy. There was a lot of discussion about membrane technology and how membranes can accelerate helium exploration and accelerate, you know, more effective and cost-effective methods of processing helium. We're excited about the prospects of the challenging aspects of processing the gas. Of course, you know, exploration is exploration. We certainly have our ear to the ground with regards to saving dollars on any processing costs.
Great. I think that was all the questions that we have at the moment, so.
Okay.
Well, in that case I'd like to thank everybody for attending. I'd like to thank Beau for the presentation. I will call the meeting to a close. Yeah, if there's any other feedback or questions to the company, please feel free to contact us. We are active on social media. We have our website. We respond to emails. Please feel free to reach out for additional information if you feel we haven't answered any of your questions. Thank you for your support over the last 12 months since our IPO. We look forward to an incredibly active and innovative 2025 as we move from our exploration stage into our production stage.
We look forward to meeting you all again at our AGM in 2026. Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Perfect, guys. That's great. Thank you all for updating attendees online this afternoon. Could I please ask attendees online not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can really better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the board of Helix Exploration PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's annual general meeting. That now concludes today's session, so good afternoon to you all.