In 2013, it was suspected that Tanzania could hold world-class helium reserves. However this was not news as research done by a British geologist in the 1950s showed that a high concentration of helium in the country’s naturally occurring gas seeps, was a strong indication that large primary deposits lay under the ground.

While the global supply of helium had comfortably outweighed the demand, the potential of Tanzania’s Helium was soon forgotten, adding the absence of any commercial justification for further exploration. As the Helium supply is dwindling, analysts have looked back to Tanzania, revealing that the nation may hold up to 98.9 billion cubic feet (bcf): enough to make Tanzania one of the world’s top producers.

Helium One, an exploration company keen on the Tanzanian Helium, has been raising currently raising up $2m from Australian, Asian and African investors since last year, and procuring three licenses from the Tanzanian government.

“The next stage is to conduct the drilling program and the expectation is to make one or more helium discoveries in these reservoirs,” he says. “All going to plan we will be in that phase next year and hopefully moving to production by 2021.” said the Technical Director for Helium One, Josh Bluett.