5 Best Helium Stocks In Canada to Buy in April 2024

When it comes to investing in commodities, helium doesn’t even make the top ten of the most popular investments.

Apart from helium used in balloons that stay afloat, most people don’t know much about this gas.

This lack of knowledge can result in missed opportunities if you are not keeping an eye on some of the best helium stocks in Canada. It’s an interesting commodity and one that Canadian investors should be familiar with.

Helium Uses and Industry Demand

Helium is a unique element with a variety of applications, and its demand across various industries has grown over the years. Here’s a look at some of the primary uses and areas where helium’s demand is high:

1. Medical Industry
   • MRI Machines: Helium is used to cool the magnets in MRI scanners, making use of its unique low boiling point. About 2,500 MRI machines are built every year.
2. Scientific Research
   • Cryogenics: Helium’s low boiling point makes it ideal for cryogenic applications, including scientific experiments requiring extremely low temperatures. Liquid nitrogen is the primary choice when temperatures below 63 Kelvin (lower than -209.8 Celsius) are needed.
3. Space and Aerospace
   • Rocket Propulsion: Helium is used to pressurize fuel tanks in rockets.
   • Leak Detection: Helium’s small atomic size makes it suitable for detecting leaks in spacecraft.
4. Electronics Industry
   • Semiconductor Manufacturing: Helium is used as a cooling agent in semiconductor and electronics production.
5. Welding
   • Industrial Welding: Helium is employed as a shielding gas in arc welding processes.
6. Balloons and Entertainment
   • Inflating Balloons: Helium’s low density is utilized for inflating balloons for entertainment purposes.
7. Diving
   • Deep-sea Diving: Helium is mixed with oxygen to create breathing gas for deep-sea divers.
8. Optical Fiber Manufacturing
   • Fibre Production: Helium’s specific properties are used in the manufacturing of optical fibres.
9. Weather Monitoring
   • Meteorological Balloons: Helium-filled balloons are used in meteorological studies to measure atmospheric conditions.
10. Natural Gas Production
    • Purification of Natural Gas: Helium is extracted from natural gas fields and must be separated and purified during natural gas production.

Industry Demand

Helium’s diverse applications have led to a significant increase in demand across various industries, especially in the medical, technological, and aerospace sectors.

However, helium is a non-renewable resource, and its extraction is tied to the production of natural gas. This has led to concerns about potential shortages in the future and has spurred efforts to find alternatives and improve recycling methods.

The strategic importance of helium, its unique properties, and increasing demand have made its market dynamics complex and often subject to fluctuations in price and availability. Investments in helium extraction and recycling technologies are seen as crucial to meeting the growing global demand and ensuring a stable supply.

Best Helium Stocks In Canada

There is a decent selection of helium stocks in Canada, though most of them fall in the micro-cap and nano-cap categories.

• Desert Mountain Energy (DME.V)
• Total Helium (TOH.V)
• Avanti Energy (AVN.V)
• Royal Helium (RHC.V)

1. Desert Mountain Energy Stock (TSXV)

Desert Mountain Energy is a Vancouver-based company focused on the extraction of helium and other rare earth gases. It has operations mainly in the US, where it holds about 85 thousand acres of land in Arizona.

The project is in Holbrook Basin, which is dubbed the “Saudi Arabia of helium,” which is a reference to its rich supply potential. The region is known for its high purity, which is easily eight to ten times higher than the industry average.

The company is still mostly in the exploration phase and is expecting to bring one of the projects online by the mid of 2022. The company has multiple wells within the scope of the first project with varying helium concentrations, with the lower threshold at 4% and the higher one at 7.1%.  

2. Total Helium Stock (TSXV)

Another Vancouver-based helium company that you might consider investing in is Total Helium. It’s making a move in the helium storage space in North America and is expecting to compete with National Helium Reserve in the US.

The facility Total Helium is proposing will be underground, and the company will own and operate it on a 50% partnership basis with a multinational gas company. Total helium also has access to 86,000 acres of land in the US.

The combination of storage and helium production makes Total Helium a potentially potent helium investment. Thanks to the non-renewable nature of the gas and limited supply, demand growth can make a good storage helium facility like the one Total Helium is proposing quite attractive.

3. Avanti Energy Stock (TSXV)

The BC-based Avanti Energy is a gas exploration company focused on helium extraction in the US as well as Western Canada. As per the company’s claims, Canada holds the world’s fifth-largest helium reserves, and they are practically untapped, thanks to the global focus on the US for helium.

So it’s focusing its exploration efforts in-house as well as in the US where the reserves are easier to find and utilize. The company currently owns about 69,000 acres of land in Canada and the US and expects a helium content of about 1 to 2% in the trapped supply under their lands, which is in line with the industry average.

The company expects results from its wells by the third quarter of 2022 and helium purification by the end of the year. The stock is only a shadow of its former self, but that can be a very good reason to invest in the company.

If its stock has a reasonable chance of going back to its glory days valuation, it can grow its investors capital several times over.

4. Xebec Adsorption Stock (TSX)

Xebec Adsorption is not exactly a helium company. It provides several solutions related to renewable energy sources and gas purifications, and one of those solutions is Helium purification.

This solution doesn’t allow you to capture/extract helium from their natural reserves, but it does allow businesses that use helium to recapture as much of it as they can. Xebec’s plant then purifies it for another use.

And while this makes Xebec Adsorption a helium stock only by extension, it’s a stock worth considering. The stock is only a fraction of what it used to be before the great recession. It’s a very small/affordable stock representing a company with a lot of potential and multiple revenue streams.

If the stock is bought when it’s in a rut, it has the potential of blowing your capital to a great extent, and its growth is not as connected to helium supply and demand as most other stocks on this list.

5. Royal Helium Stock (TSXV)

Royal Helium is based in Saskatoon, and its land holdings are massive compared to the other companies on this list: 862,908 acres of land in Saskatchewan. The problem is concentration, which is quite low (between 0.33% and 0.64%).

However, considering how much land the company holds, if it can manage its production and refining cost-effectively, it can produce much more helium from its relatively poor sources than many others would with their helium-rich sources and higher concentration of the noble gas.

However, the company might benefit from the supposedly lower depths of drilling needed to extract the gas.

Nano-Cap Helium Stock to Consider

There are two nano-cap helium stocks that you might want to consider (trading in venture cap):

• First Helium: (Ticker: RHC) – It’s a helium discovery, development, and production company with lands in Alberta.
• Imperial Helium: (Ticker: IHC) – The company has consolidated a lot of energy-related expertise under one roof and is leveraging its knowledge and a data-driven approach to identify and develop helium resources.

There are several US companies that are associated with helium production and refining. The US is the largest helium producer in the world and is home to many of the largest helium companies as well, but they can’t be labelled as helium stocks per se because that’s usually just one of their many divisions.

Companies like Linde PLC, Air Products and Chemicals, and Air Liquide might be considered great investments, but they will not be exposed to and affected by helium prices the way stocks mentioned above would be.

Helium Reserves And Cost

Helium is the second most common element in the universe after hydrogen, but on earth, it’s quite difficult to find and extract.

Most of the helium we can extract is produced via radioactive decay in natural gas chambers. Note that there is helium in the atmosphere but too little to extract, about 5 PPM.

The US has the world’s largest known reserves, with Algeria and Russia in second and third place, respectively. Helium’s rarity is what makes it a relatively unique asset. We may still have several potential applications of helium but only limited supply to meet the demand needs.

The cost is not fixed or regulated like that of other commodities, and it varies quite heavily based on the supplier and the level of purity. But liquid helium is far more expensive compared to helium gas because of the cost of liquidation.

How To Buy Helium Stocks In Canada

The cheapest way to buy stocks is from discount brokers. My top choices in Canada are:

To learn more, check out my full breakdown of the best trading platforms in Canada here.

Conclusion

Helium’s limited supply ensures that even a small and steady rise and demand might keep pushing the prices higher. In the coming years, we might see more reserves online to meet the demand needs.

However, if a more affordable alternative is discovered, especially for helium’s cooling function, these stocks might become dead weight. So if you are unsure, you may consider sticking to the gas with a more predictable supply/demand environment, like these hydrogen stocks here.