Former foreign minister Alexander Downer joins company searching for the hydrogen holy grail

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer has joined Gold Hydrogen’s board, as the company prepares to drill for natural occurrences of the gas in South Australia.

Alexander Downer has joined the board of a company aiming to drill for naturally-occurring hydrogen in South Australia, saying unless innovative projects like this succeed, our path to Net Zero will be “as costly and bumpy as it has been lengthy’’.

The former foreign minister and high commissioner to the UK will chair Gold Hydrogen, which is targeting a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange by the end of the year after recently closing a pre-initial public offer funding round.

The Brisbane-based company aims to drill for hydrogen on its exploration tenement which covers the lower half of the Yorke Peninsula, with historical drilling records indicating that hydrogen at up to 80 per cent purity could be tapped in the region.

Gold Hydrogen is not the only company targeting naturally-occurring hydrogen in SA, with former Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman earlier this year buying a material stake in Perth-based H2EX, which has secured four permit applications covering 32,000sq km in the state.

Gold Hydrogen is the front-runner from a regulatory perspective however, being the only company nationwide with a granted exploration permit.

The company’s exploration targets are based around drilling work done in the early 20th century, when two wells drilled on Kangaroo Island and the Yorke Peninsula turned up hydrogen shows.

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The SA Department of Energy also says that fairy circles in the region might be evidence of hydrogen venting.

Mr Downer said in a statement that the “strong possibility” of finding a cheap, carbon-zero fuel source was what motivated him to join the board.

“There’s no doubt the climate change movement has unstoppable momentum,’’ Mr Downer said.

“How we get meaningful action in this country while making sure we keep the lights on is the big question.

‘’It will take innovators like Gold Hydrogen, which could produce carbon-zero gas at less than $1 a kilogram compared to the about $4 to $6 that green hydrogen from solar and wind producers are currently costing, to make that possible.

‘’Unless projects like this come off, our journey to carbon zero will be as costly and bumpy as it has been lengthy.’’

SA is working to position itself as a pivotal hub in the developing hydrogen economy, with the state government having plans for its own $593m hydrogen production, storage and energy facility at Whyalla in the Upper Spencer Gulf, where a hydrogen hub on government land, but developed by industry participants such as Santos and Fortescue Future Industries is also planned.

Last week AGL also announced it was assessing the viability of a hydrogen hub at its Torrens Island power station site near Port Adelaide, with heavyweights Brickworks, Adbri and INPEX also on board.

Gold Hydrogen managing director Neil McDonald said naturally occurring hydrogen would be “nirvana to energy companies’’.

“Early modelling shows the South Australia field could produce enough hydrogen to power a million homes for 40 years,’’ he said.

The funds raised by the company to date will allow it to start a geophysical exploration program including airborne surveys, soil surveys, seismic reprocessing and studies with CSIRO and Schlumberger, Mr McDonald said.

Currently, naturally-occurring hydrogen is only produced at one site globally, in Mali, he said.