News: BNL Blue Star Helium Says Initial Plan Of Development Completed For Las Animas Helium Project, page-23

Little off the thread, but if anyone is watching with what is happening with the new US legislation getting pushed through you will understand how the demand for Helium within the US should grow out within the domestic chip manufacturing that is being brought back onshore and the already knee capping of the Chinese on the topic.

Liquid helium, an inert gas extracted from natural gas harvesting, has several properties that are leveraged in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Because helium is an “inert” gas, it does not react with other elements, which makes it ideal for manufacturing semiconductors. Chemical reactions that take place during the processing of semiconductors are generally gas- or liquid-based, so using inert gas around the silicon prevents unwanted reactions. Also, because helium has a high thermal conductivity, it conducts heat away effectively, which helps to control the temperature of the silicon during the manufacturing process and makes miniaturization of the semiconductors possible.

Semiconductors are increasingly present in nearly every application that can be imagined. For example, semiconductor-based electric vehicle components represent 35 percent of vehicle-manufacturing costs, and by 2030 they could represent half of the manufacturing cost as other components become more affordable. In the United States, the largest use of helium (30 percent) is for health care, mainly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), analytical and laboratory applications (17 percent), and engineering and scientific applications (6 percent).

Without oil and gas production from which helium production is a secondary product, today’s modern semiconductor manufacturing would not be possible. Intel’s factories would not be able to operate without helium recovered from oil and gas operations and the processing of natural gas. Despite that, some have called for the end to oil and gas leasing on federal lands, controlled by the Department of Interior.

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/helium-is-instrumental-in-semiconductor-manufacturing/

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/26/china-trade-tech-00072232