By Elias Weiss | Phoenix New Times
Helium is more than just fuel for advertising blimps during sports events or how birthday balloons can float up, up and away into the clear blue sky.
Without helium, astronaut Neil Armstrong would never have taken one giant leap for mankind after landing on the moon in the late 1960s. There would be no magnetic resonance imaging, better known as MRI scans, in the hospital for patients. Cryogenic research, the science that studies the production and effects of supercold temperatures, and even nuclear power wouldn’t be possible without the natural element.
In 1999, there were six companies that relied on helium production in metro Phoenix, it was a time when the Valley of the Sun was on the cusp of unprecedented growth as a haven for developing technology industries.
Now 23 years later, there are 47 such companies that tie their fate to the abundance of helium, dubbed as a “critical mineral” by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2018.
