Gold Hydrogen targets $20m ahead of ASX listing

In an Australian first, Gold Hydrogen is looking to raise $20m in a bid to drill the precious energy resource straight out of the ground.

Gold Hydrogen founders Neil McDonald and Luke Titus flank chairman Alexander Downer. Picture: Supplied.

Alexander Downer-chaired exploration outfit Gold Hydrogen is aiming to raise $20m in new capital ahead of a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange, as it targets the “nirvana’’ of energy sources.

The company will use the money raised to explore for naturally-occurring hydrogen in South Australia, inspired by historical drilling records which show the energy-rich gas was detected in wells drilled in the Cooper Basin and on Kangaroo Island and the Yorke Peninsula, between 90 and 100 years ago.

Gold Hydrogen was granted an exploration licence covering Kangaroo Island and Yorke Peninsula in mid-2021, and says it has had the potential gas resource “independently and conservatively assessed” at 1.3 billion kilograms.

Mr Downer, Australia’s former foreign affairs minister and former high commissioner to the UK, said the nation could be sitting on vast quantities of naturally-occurring hydrogen.

“Gold Hydrogen intends to be the first to develop this potential resource,”

“At a time in history when we have the biggest push on climate change, we need innovation to find clean fuel sources.

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“Hydrogen is increasingly seen as the fuel of the future, along with solar and wind and other renewable energy sources.

“We believe we are sitting on vast quantities of the gas and that it can be accessed using proven engineering practices with minimal environmental impacts.’’

The company has forecast the production cost of natural hydrogen at about 50c per kg, “compared to an initial forecast of $3/kg to $9/kg for manufactured hydrogen’’.

The company’s managing director Neil McDonald said natural hydrogen sourced in SA was potentially the cheapest, cleanest-to-produce hydrogen in the world.

“If exploration is successful, this SA natural hydrogen resource could provide enough energy to supply one million homes for the next 40 years,” Mr McDonald said.

Mr McDonald said the 1920s and 1930s finds were made during the hunt for oil, and their importance was not realised at the time.

‘’Almost a century later, we are looking at these results with a new understanding that naturally occurring hydrogen could be the key to unlocking a revolutionary near zero-carbon, low-cost fuel source,’’ Mr McDonald said.

He has previously told News Corp Australia that discovering natural hydrogen in economic volumes would be “nirvana to energy companies – a cheap energy source without the carbon emission problem”.

Former Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman also has his sights set on natural hydrogen in SA, earlier this year buying a material stake in Perth-based hydrogen explorer H2EX and coming on board as chair.

The two founder directors of H2EX are chief executive Mark Hanna and chief financial officer Greschen Brecker, who both worked under Coleman at Woodside.

Proceeds from the Gold Hydrogen offer will be used primarily to fund exploration at the company’s Ramsay Project on Yorke Peninsula, to prove natural hydrogen is present in sufficient volumes to be extracted for commercial use.

Gold Hydrogen holds applications for exploration rights to another seven tenements in SA. The new share offer is fully underwritten by Morgan’s Brisbane and will value the company at $70m on listing. The company expects to list on the ASX early next year.

Gold Hydrogen has been funded by private equity to date.