The first approximately 300 metres of DDH-26-05 have returned hydrogen concentrations of up to 23.5% H₂.
That is significant because the company’s previous record hole, DDH-26-04, reached 24.3% H₂ at 707 metres.
This time, QIMC has come close to matching that peak at less than half the depth.
And the result is not limited to a single reading.
The company has outlined an approximately 54-metre corridor of sustained percent-level hydrogen between 143 and 197 metres, including:
• 20.8% H₂ at 158 m
• 23.5% H₂ at 170 m
• 17.6% H₂ at 176 m
• 16.0% H₂ at 179 m
QIMC also reported drilling observations consistent with free gas entering the borehole around 164-167 metres, directly between the two strongest hydrogen readings in the section.
Further down-hole, another double-digit interval returned 13.9% H₂ around 263 metres.
Around 74% of valid readings in DDH-26-05 so far are at or above 1% hydrogen, while methane has remained at zero.
The hole is still drilling and is planned to reach approximately 900 metres.
At this stage, the key takeaway is that Bennett Hill is continuing to produce high hydrogen concentrations across multiple intervals and at shallower depths than previously seen.
The growing list is impressive. No updates numbers of $$ raised from my earlier posts. But the ecosystem is growing....(updated with thanks to those who commented on my earlier post).
Here are the high-level stats:
107 Natural H2 companies
13 Stimulated H2 companies
46 Research, tech, service and advisory companies (under represented at present)
41 Investors identified (probably under represented at present).
Lots of positives to discuss, and a lot of innovation taking place. It is an exciting time to be exploring!
Gold Hydrogen has announced a significant operational milestone at its Ramsay Project on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, successfully flowing helium to surface, separating it from the gas stream, purifying it and capturing it in cylinders during the ongoing Ramsay 1 flow testing campaign. According to the company, this is the first time helium has been concentrated, purified and bottled on Australian soil since the closure of the country's only helium production plant at Darwin in late 2023.
The Ramsay 1 program was specifically designed as a helium-focused flow test ahead of the larger zonal testing campaigns planned for Ramsay 2 and Ramsay 3. Using a helium purification system supplied by Canada's Quantum Technology Corporation, the company successfully separated helium from the well's gas stream and demonstrated proof-of-concept applications, including gas bottling and inflating an industrial balloon.
During testing, Gold Hydrogen reported air-corrected helium concentrations exceeding 30% at peak and stabilised concentrations of 19% prior to purification. The recovered gas stream consisted predominantly of helium, nitrogen and naturally occurring hydrogen, consistent with previous gas compositions reported from the Ramsay Project. The current field measurements remain subject to confirmation through independent laboratory analysis.
The flow test was conducted using Ramsay 1's designed pumping capacity of up to 2,000 barrels of fluid and gas per day. The company noted that the upcoming Ramsay 3 program has been engineered to operate at rates of up to 20,000 barrels per day, allowing the knowledge gained from the current campaign to support equipment optimisation and operational planning before higher-capacity testing begins.
Beyond the immediate testing objectives, Gold Hydrogen believes the successful operation of the purification system provides valuable engineering data that may accelerate future commercialisation planning. Vendor design work for a modular commercial helium plant has already been completed and is expected to be finalised following the Ramsay 3 testing program. The company also plans to dispatch gas samples for compositional and isotopic analysis, including helium-3, through collaborations with CSIRO and the University of Oxford.
Ramsay 1 will now be converted into a reinjection well as the broader 2026 testing campaign progresses toward zonal flow testing at Ramsay 2 and Ramsay 3. Data generated from the program will contribute to a future contingent resource assessment covering the wider Ramsay Project.
While the company emphasised that the current work represents a pilot-scale equipment and process validation rather than commercial production, the successful separation and purification of helium under field conditions marks an important technical milestone for the project.
Production testing has now commenced at the McCoy-1 well within the company's Ridge Play, where the objective is straightforward: determine whether the well can sustain measurable natural hydrogen and helium flow.
Unlike exploration drilling, production testing focuses on understanding how a reservoir actually performs.
Over the next three to four weeks, HyTerra will independently test two target zones while collecting data on gas composition, flow rates, pressure behaviour, and reservoir performance. Laboratory analysis and interpretation are expected to continue through to the end of September.
The information gathered will help refine reservoir models, guide future drilling decisions, and determine the next appraisal steps across the broader Nemaha Project.
Fingers crossed for HyTerra; we wish them success in their testing results.
Based on the article, Andy Beard, the President of Hydrogen at Shell, outlines how the hydrogen industry is transitioning from conceptual ambition to real-world execution. Reflecting on discussions from the World Hydrogen Summit, he emphasizes that the focus has shifted to making hydrogen projects commercially viable and scalable.
The core takeaways from the article highlight how the industry must evolve:
The overarching theme is that hydrogen won't solve every climate challenge, but for hard-to-abate sectors, it remains crucial. To turn these early, isolated projects into a fully functioning, scalable market, industry players, infrastructure developers, and policymakers must all move in lockstep.
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