DULUTH — Two years after a company confirmed the presence of helium beneath the surface of Northeastern Minnesota, other companies are poking around the area for confirmation of a lightweight gas from the other end of the periodic table of elements: hydrogen.

At its remote site between Babbitt and Isabella, Pulsar Helium has drilled three additional wells since October, bringing its total to five as it seeks to better estimate the size of the helium reservoir and characterize its resource, which already ranks among the highest concentrations in the world.

Most notably, the company recently announced that some of the helium released by its original well includes helium-3, a rare isotope that can be used for nuclear fusion, scanning for nuclear weapons at ports of entry and supercomputing, among other uses.

“A cylinder the size of my forearm here would be 30 million bucks,” said Cliff Cain, CEO of Edelgas Group, which advises companies — including Pulsar — on rare gases.

Why is helium so valuable?

It’s incredibly rare on Earth, sourced primarily as a byproduct of decaying tritium from nuclear warheads. Its prevalence on the moon, however, has even prompted some to consider sourcing it from there.

Remote northern Minnesota would be a bit easier to reach, and Pulsar officials are still determining how much of the gas is standard helium versus helium-3.

The region’s subterranean cracks and fissures are believed to have trapped helium, a byproduct of the breakdown of radioactive elements, in pockets beneath the surface, and those characteristics are also attracting companies looking for hydrogen, sometimes found in the same places as helium.

Last month, Pulsar finalized a deal to buy a hydrogen exploration company and its private gas exploration rights across more than 59,000 acres in St. Louis and Itasca counties as it looks for more helium.

Thomas Abraham-James, president and CEO of Pulsar, said he’s aware of several other companies eyeing gas exploration in the region, and if they are after helium, he doesn’t see it as competition.

“It’s further validation of what we’ve done and the potential of this area,” Abraham-James said.

What’s fueling the hunt for hydrogen?

A drill rig is in place and about to start drilling Pulsar Helium’s third well near Babbitt, Minn. on Oct. 16, 2025. The company confirmed the presence of helium gas trapped beneath the surface in northeastern Minnesota two years ago. Companies hoping to find hydrogen in the area also want to conduct exploratory drilling. (Jimmy Lovrien / Duluth News Tribune)

While demand for helium stems from its uses in medical, aerospace and defense products, the search for so-called “natural hydrogen” or “geologic hydrogen” in the region is being driven by the desire to have a fuel that releases only water vapor when it’s burned.

Currently, most hydrogen comes from fossil fuels, and while water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, that requires a significant amount of electricity. That’s why the prospect of naturally occurring hydrogen in Northeastern Minnesota has piqued the interest of several companies. The attention comes after the U.S. Geological Survey identified areas along the Midcontinent Rift, including Minnesota, as areas where the geology might allow for hydrogen to form as the water interacts with iron and is then trapped in underground reservoirs.

Quebec Innovative Materials Corp. last month announced it would explore the possibility of hydrogen in two St. Louis County townships on the Iron Range, and Koloma, which is backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, said it has been conducting surveys as it gears up to possibly conduct exploratory drilling in the region.

Related Articles

More drops for AI stocks drag Wall Street toward a 4th straight loss

Warner Bros recommends investors reject Paramount’s offer in favor of Netflix’s

Expert tips to ease financial pressure and avoid holiday overspending

Own a Hyundai or Kia? Here’s what you need to know about anti-theft settlement

Hyundai and Kia will repair millions of vehicles under a deal to fix anti-theft technology

Kristen Delano, Koloma’s head of government affairs, told the News Tribune last month that the USGS data is often a starting point for companies hunting for hydrogen, but that Koloma is analyzing other existing geologic surveys, collecting its own data and using artificial intelligence to narrow where it wants to conduct exploratory drilling.

“We also have expert geologists and data that shows us in the Iron Range, you have the right type of iron-rich rock, and that the right type of geology and depths and opportunities for this to exist and be caught in these pockets or traps,” Delano said.

The confirmation of helium in Minnesota in early 2024 and the potential for hydrogen in the area prompted state officials to craft regulations for the industry. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said its rulemaking for permitting and the leasing of state lands for gas production must be completed by May 2026.

What makes Northeastern Minnesota a good option?

The Midcontinent Rift formed 1.1 billion years ago when North America tried to pull itself apart, sending magma up and leaving behind deposits of copper, nickel and other metals in areas like Minnesota’s Duluth Complex and Tamarack Intrusion. Iron-rich olivine is often found throughout the Duluth Complex, which itself intersects with the 2-billion-year-old Biwabik Iron Range, which, of course, contains iron. And a type of iron, called iron(II), or Fe(II), can form hydrogen when it reacts with water.

“These terrains are sutured together, and having them right next to each other, you have high potential for a lot of iron(II) that saw a lot of water driven through it from these geologic processes,” said Latisha Brengman, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Hydrogen can also form by radiolysis, when radiation released by old granite breaks water down into hydrogen over a long period of time.

While the reactions that create hydrogen “probably happen all the time,” Brengman said, there’s only one known reservoir in the world, in Mali. It has been tapped to power a nearby village.

Researchers suspect additional natural hydrogen sources have yet to be discovered, but Brengman said capturing natural hydrogen — reservoir or not — could include a technique combining natural and engineered processes.

That technique would involve using iron near the surface or tailings — waste rock leftover from the taconite pellet plants — to host these reactions and capture the hydrogen. Industries seeking to replace coal, oil and natural gas could then burn that hydrogen as a carbon-free energy source with water vapor as the only byproduct.

Delano said regionally sourced hydrogen could be a “game changer” across many industries, including the iron mining and steelmaking processes. “Natural hydrogen’s best use is being put to use for other energy needs and cleaning up those really hard to abate sectors,” Delano said.

But hydrogen is a small, light gas that can easily leak. Out in the atmosphere, it can react to other greenhouse gases.

“While hydrogen itself is not a greenhouse gas, leakage of hydrogen fuels causes indirect warming due to hydrogen’s influence on methane, tropospheric ozone, and stratospheric water vapor,” according to research published in Frontiers in Energy Research last year.

Related Articles

Minnesota county pays $3.25M to settle sisters’ civil rights suit

Duluth teen sentenced for randomly assaulting homeless man with rock

Woodbury school among many impacted by influenza outbreaks, will switch to online classes

Probation for MN man who made threats over political banter at a White Bear Lake church concert

Own a Hyundai or Kia? Here’s what you need to know about anti-theft settlement

Delano said Koloma expects to be “very, very active” in 2026 with seismic studies using earth-shaking “vibe trucks” to send energy waves into the ground and get a sense of what’s below.

“If that data leads to what we think it will, then we’re ready to keep our feet on the ground … and be part of the Minnesota infrastructure as we explore for hydrogen,” Delano said.

And as Brengman readies findings on whether magnetite, a common iron ore on the Iron Range, produces hydrogen — spoiler: “Yes, it’s a very common reaction,” she said — she’s gearing up for her next project. She’ll be partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies to build a system that can help predict where hydrogen was or is produced.

“The Midwest has a lot of great potential, because it’s a very old terrain, and so there’s lots of old-water rock interaction to map out,” Brengman said.

After receiving a report that juveniles made “shooting gestures” with their fingers toward St. Paul Public Schools security officers, police said they found a realistic-looking pellet gun in an 11-year-old’s backpack.

Officers were called to Humboldt High School on St. Paul’s West Side just before 2:20 p.m. Tuesday regarding the gestures, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman. The juveniles walked away before police arrived.

Police searched the area and found juveniles about half a mile from the school, at George and Cesar Chavez streets. A juvenile threw a backpack over a fence as officers were approaching, Arcand said.

Officers located the backpack and saw what appeared to be a firearm inside. It was later determined to be a pellet gun.

The 11-year-old boy who’d had the backpack was detained by police and released to family members, according to Arcand.

Police continue to investigate.

Related Articles

Police: ‘No indication’ anyone beyond 16-year-old involved in Dakota County school threats

What to know about MIT professor Nuno Loureiro and the investigation into his shooting

Jack Smith tells lawmakers his team developed ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ against Trump

Student sent threatening message to Savage school staffer in ‘attempt to get out of school,’ district says

Duluth teen sentenced for randomly assaulting homeless man with rock

By MATTHEW DALY and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, moving to dissolve a research lab that a top White House official described as “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.″

White House budget director Russ Vought criticized the lab in a social media post Tuesday night and said a comprehensive review of the lab is underway. “Vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location,″ Vought said.

The research lab, which houses the largest federal research program on climate change, supports research to predict, prepare for and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters. The research lab is managed by a nonprofit consortium of more than 130 colleges and universities on behalf of the National Science Foundation.

Related Articles

Senate approves bill inspired by DC plane crash to ensure military aircraft will broadcast location

Nebraska plans to be the first state to implement Trump’s new Medicaid work requirements

Trump’s National Guard deployment in Washington can continue for now, an appeals court says

Senate passes $901 billion defense bill that pushes Hegseth for boat strike video

FCC leader says agency is no longer independent as he’s grilled by Democrats over Kimmel controversy

A senior White House official cited two instances of the lab’s “woke direction” that wastes taxpayer funds on what the official called frivolous pursuits and ideologies. One funded an Indigenous and Earth Sciences center that aimed to “make the sciences more welcoming, inclusive, and justice-centered,” while another experiment traced air pollution to “demonize motor vehicles, oil and gas operations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the administration’s actions.

For climate scientists the lab “is quite literally our global mothership,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University.

“NCAR supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes — the largest community climate model in the world. That too,” Hayhoe said in a social media post.

“Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet,” she said.

Following World War II, interest in meteorology, solar observations and atmospheric science increased, spurring the creation of NCAR. The focus initially centered on atmospheric chemistry and physical meteorology.

NCAR’s budget more than doubled from the 1980s into the 1990s, driven by increased federal focus on climate change research.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the lab a global leader in earth systems scientific research.

“Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science,” the two-term Democrat said. “NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.”

The White House said President Donald Trump is restoring the lab to its original purpose. It is unclear how many of the research lab’s 830 employees and associated programs at partnering universities could be affected.

The change comes after the administration recently targeted another Colorado lab, the former National Renewable Energy Lab, to remove its focus on wind and solar power. The Energy Department site was renamed “National Laboratory of the Rockies” earlier this month.

Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson said the Trump administration is “no longer picking and choosing energy sources.”

Colorado’s Democratic senators — John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet — along with Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse argued in a statement that the center’s work has led to early warnings for natural disasters and has deepened understanding of the Earth’s systems. They called the administration’s move reckless, saying it would have devastating consequences for families in Colorado and communities across the nation.

“Efforts to dismantle this institution and its essential programs are deeply dangerous and blatantly retaliatory,” they said.

Antonio Busalacchi, president of the nonprofit consortium, said dismantling the research lab “would set back our nation’s ability to predict, prepare for, and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters.”

Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday paid his respects to two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter who were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert, joining their grieving families as their remains were brought back to the country they served.

Trump met privately with the families at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before the dignified transfer, a solemn ritual conducted in honor of U.S. service members killed in action. The civilian was also included in the transfer.

Trump, who traveled to Dover several times in his first term, once described it as “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.

The two guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, and have been hailed as heroes by the Iowa National Guard.

Torres-Tovar’s and Howard’s families were at Dover for the return of their remains, alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and leaders of the Iowa National Guard. Their remains will be taken to Iowa after the transfer.

A U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, identified Tuesday as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, was also killed. Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were injured in the attack. The Pentagon has not identified them.

They were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

An Army carry team places the flag-draped transfer case with the remains of civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat of Macomb, Mich., into the transfer vehicle during a casualty return, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The process of returning service member remains

There is no formal role for a president at a dignified transfer other than to watch in silence, with all thoughts about what happened in the past and what is happening at Dover kept to himself for the moment. There is no speaking by any of the dignitaries who attend, with the only words coming from the military officials who direct the highly choreographed transfers.

Trump arrived without first lady Melania Trump, who had been scheduled to accompany him, according to the president’s public schedule. Her office declined to elaborate, with spokesperson Nick Clemens saying the first lady “was not able to attend today.”

During the process at Dover, transfer cases draped with the American flag that hold the soldiers’ remains are carried from the belly of a hulking C-17 military aircraft to a waiting vehicle under the watchful eyes of grieving family members. The vehicle then transports the remains to the mortuary facility at the base, where the fallen are prepared for burial at their final resting places.

President Donald Trump salutes as a Army carry team moves the flag-draped transfer case with the remains of Iowa National Guard soldier Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, during a casualty return, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Iowa National Guard members hailed as heroes

Howard’s stepfather, Jeffrey Bunn, has said Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and last out.” He said Howard had wanted to be a soldier since he was a boy.

In a social media post, Bunn, who is chief of the Tama, Iowa, police department, said Howard was a loving husband and an “amazing man of faith.” He said Howard’s brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, would escort “Nate” back to Iowa.

Torres-Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” family-oriented person who always put others first, according to fellow Guard members who were deployed with him and issued a statement to the local TV broadcast station WOI.

Dina Qiryaqoz, the daughter of the civilian interpreter who was killed, said Wednesday in a statement that her father worked for the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Sakat is survived by his wife and four adult children.

The interpreter was from Bakhdida, Iraq, a small Catholic village southeast of Mosul, and the family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 on a special visa, Qiryaqoz said. At the time of his death, Sakat was employed as an independent contractor for Virginia-based Valiant Integrated Services.

Sakat’s family was still struggling to believe that he is gone. “He was a devoted father and husband, a courageous interpreter and a man who believed deeply in the mission he served,” Qiryaqoz said.

Related Articles

Senate approves bill inspired by DC plane crash to ensure military aircraft will broadcast location

Nebraska plans to be the first state to implement Trump’s new Medicaid work requirements

Trump’s National Guard deployment in Washington can continue for now, an appeals court says

Senate passes $901 billion defense bill that pushes Hegseth for boat strike video

FCC leader says agency is no longer independent as he’s grilled by Democrats over Kimmel controversy

Trump’s reaction to the attack in Syria

Trump told reporters over the weekend that he was mourning the deaths. He vowed retaliation. The most recent instance of U.S. service members killed in action was in January 2024, when three American troops died in a drone attack in Jordan.

Saturday’s deadly attack followed a rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria, bringing the former pariah state into a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

Trump has forged a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the onetime leader of an Islamic insurgent group who led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad.

Trump, who met with al-Sharaa last month at the White House, said Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian leader, who Trump said was “devastated by what happened.”

During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.

Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Darlene Superville in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.