UNITED STATES MINERAL RESOURCES 



HELIUM 



By DwiGHT E. Warj) and Arthur P. Pierce 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Abstract of conclusions 285 



Introduction 285 



Geologic environment 286 



Resources 287 



Identified and hypothetical resources 287 



Speculative resources 288 



Problems for research 289 



References cited 290 



FIGURE 



32. Graph showing helium sales in the United 

 States, 1920-70 



TABLE 



56. Some known deposits of helium in the United 

 States and Canada 



Page 



286 



Page 



289 



ABSTRACT OF CONCLUSIONS 



Helium, because of its light weight, chemical inertness, and 

 very low temperature in liquid form, is important in space 

 exploration, industry, and research. It is recovered as a by- 

 product from natural gas used for fuel and has not been a 

 tf.rget for independent exploration. 



This situation will change, however, when the few large 

 gas fields that now supply most of the helium are exhausted, 

 unless comparable deposits are found. Natural gases with 

 little or no fuel value but appreciable amounts of helium 

 occur in various places in the Rocky Mountain region, but 

 their potential for supplying helium needs of the future is 

 unknown. 



Inasmuch as helium originates from uranium and thorium 

 derived from igneous rocks, accumulations are not neces- 

 sarily limited to areas where oil and gas are found. Uranium- 

 mining areas and volcanic and geothermal areas of the 

 Western United States have untested potential for helium 

 accumulation. 



Billions of cubic feet of helium are being wasted annually 

 in the production of natural gas from which the helium is 

 not removed. Better and cheaper methods of helium recovery 

 are needed to save this helium for the future. 



INTRODUCTION 



Helium, a lightweight, inert gas, is an end prod- 

 uct of the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium 

 in rocks. In World War I, the first attempts were 

 made to obtain helium from natural gas for use in 

 lighter-than-air craft, but it was not until World 

 War II that this use was realized on a large scale. 

 The abundant and dependable supply developed dur- 

 ing World War II has made helium available for 

 various uses that now overshadow military needs. 

 The properties of lightness and inertness have made 

 helium useful in the space exploration program, the 

 largest user. Either or both of these properties have 

 made helium useful in creating controlled atmos- 

 pheres for welding certain metals and for growing 

 crystals, for various other industrial processes, for 

 use in chromatography, for heat transfer in nuclear 

 reactors, for leak detection, for breathing mixtures, 

 and for various laboratory researches. In cryogenics 

 research and engineering, liquid helium is used to 

 obtain temperatures near absolute zero. 



Assuming that helium will continue to be available 

 in large volumes at reasonable cost, all the previously 

 mentioned uses are expected to increase in the fu- 

 ture, and new uses will probably appear. One po- 

 tential use is as a coolant in power transmission, 

 where conductors at the temperature of liquid helium 

 become superconductors, thereby increasing the 

 efficiency of power transmission lines. In power 

 generation by nuclear fusion, envisioned for the 

 future, thermonuclear reactions may be confined by 

 magnetic fields produced by high-intensity super- 

 conducting magnets which will use liquid helium for 

 a refrigerant. The nuclear power industry could 

 become a limited source of helium from the dis- 

 integration of nuclear fuels. 



U.S. GEOL. S¥RVEY PROF. PAPER 820 



285 



