Noble Helium Ltd (ASX:NHE, OTC:NBHEF, FRA:GN1) has begun mobilising a drilling rig for its 2026 helium exploration campaign at the 100%-owned North Rukwa Project in Tanzania, with the Kinambo-1 well expected to spud in early October.
BoreXpert will move the Schramm T130 XD rig from Kenya to the Kinambo site, with arrival expected during the final week of September.
The company has completed and certified all road, site preparation and accommodation works, while long-lead items have arrived in Tanzania. Personnel and additional materials will shortly be transported from Dar es Salaam.
Noble Helium has also signed a contract with SLB to provide downhole logging, key sampling and data collection services.
SLB's logging and testing equipment will be mobilised to Kinambo in time for the rig's arrival.
Kinambo-1 is designed to reach a vertical depth of 1,750 metres and is expected to take around 24 days to drill, followed by downhole logging.
Noble Helium said selecting the Schramm rig would reduce the equipment and number of vehicles required. The rig move will involve five truck-and-trailer loads travelling approximately 1,500 kilometres.
The campaign will test the western margin of North Rukwa, where prospective helium volumes have been assessed at 118 billion cubic feet on a best-case basis and 225.5 billion cubic feet on a mean-case basis.
Executive chair Dennis Donald said the mobilisation represented an important step in advancing the project.
"We're excited to get this potentially company-transforming exploration campaign underway," Donald said.
"The deeper planned depths for Kinambo-1 and Kinambo-2, combined with the appointment of SLB to undertake the testing program, gives us an excellent chance of extrapolating results across to the much larger eastern margin, which we hope to drill next year."
Noble Helium is exploring for a large-scale, geopolitically independent helium supply at North Rukwa, which lies within Tanzania's East African Rift System.
Helium is used across diagnostic, scientific and space exploration industries, with emerging demand also linked to artificial intelligence infrastructure, advanced computing and nuclear fusion research.
School room nearing completion for Kinambo Community