Bo Sears is - though too modest to call himself this - one of the world’s foremost authorities on helium geology.
He wrote the 2015 book Helium: The Disappearing Element — widely regarded as a textbook for the sector — and has testified before the United States House of Representatives specifically on the subject of America’s helium supply.
Before founding Helix Exploration, he led the discovery and development of the Mankota Project in Canada, the first project in that country capable of producing Grade-A helium.
He is, in short, not a man who stumbled into this industry.
He joins us fresh off one of the most significant milestones in Helix Exploration’s short history — first helium gas production at the Rudyard Project in Montana, making the company the state’s first helium producer.
Helix went from IPO to production in under two years, and Bo has been the architect of every step.
We start at the beginning — Bo’s academic and professional background, what drew him to Montana, and the moment the Rudyard Field revealed itself as something far bigger than had been modelled.
He talks candidly about the management philosophy that got a junior explorer from IPO to production in less than two years, and what it feels like to finally be producing rather than promising.
From there we move into the global helium market — the structural supply crisis, what the depletion of the US federal reserve and the unreliability of Russian and Middle Eastern supply actually means for industrial buyers, and where Bo sees pricing and demand heading as semiconductors, quantum computing and healthcare continue to accelerate consumption.
We then spend significant time on the hydrogen economy — an area that has moved from scientific curiosity to genuine strategic priority at Rudyard.
Bo explains in plain terms what geological hydrogen actually is and why Rudyard’s geology is generating it.
He walks us through what the Inez #1 ultramafic core samples revealed, the economics of zero-carbon geological hydrogen versus green and blue alternatives, and the implications of the US Inflation Reduction Act’s clean hydrogen tax credits and hydrogen moonshot.
He also shares his views on where geological hydrogen fits in the broader energy transition and who the natural buyers are.
We then turn to the business itself.
Bo discusses what the next 100 days look like operationally now that first production has been achieved, and what he can share about the offtake discussions now moving to site visits.
He addresses the processing plant capacity question — at what point throughput becomes a constraint and what the expansion pathway looks like — and outlines the reserve upgrade pathway from internal projections toward certified resource numbers.
We also cover Helix’s US market strategy, including the OTCQB listing and what it will take for further American institutional capital to discover the story.
Then we turn to Ingomar — Helix’s original flagship asset. Bo addresses what happened at the Clink #1 well, why Rudyard became the priority, and crucially, what a successful test of the Flathead Formation — still yet to be commercially flow tested, despite carrying the highest helium grade in Montana and extraordinary hydrogen readings — would mean for the company’s valuation.
He also discusses the broader Montana Helium Fairway and whether a third or even fourth asset is on the radar.
We close with the big picture — the endgame.
Whether Helix is building toward independence or a strategic sale to one of the major helium distributors, what Bo’s vision for Rudyard looks like, and what it means to be building something with genuine US energy security implications at a moment of maximum geopolitical tension.
Listen in!
