The war in the Middle East is already affecting the global energy market. Iranian attacks carried out, among others, on Qatar's infrastructure mean that the country will have to significantly limit the export of several raw materials, including helium, one of the most valuable and rarest elements on Earth.
Qatar is one of the largest producers of helium in the world and it is already known that as a result of the Iranian strikes, it will have to reduce its production by at least 14%.
The value of this gas results from several factors. Dr. Eng. Marta Wacławczyk says on the University of Warsaw website:
Helium is an element with many applications, including: used as a coolant in devices using the magnetic resonance phenomenon, to provide an inert protective atmosphere in the production of optical fibers and semiconductors. It is also used in arc welding processes and to detect leaks and leaks in installations.
As if this were not enough, despite the fact that it is one of the most common elements in the universe, its resources on Earth are very small and at the moment the only profitable method of its production is to obtain it from natural gas. Just mention that in Europe, the only producer of this gas is Poland – our country is responsible for approximately 1%. world production (the leaders are the USA and Qatar).
Helium is an element of the future
Chinese fusion reactor – HL-2M tokamakVisual China Group
The value of helium may also increase significantly in the future when this gas, in the form of the helium-3 isotope, can become a safe fuel for fusion reactors without radioactive waste. However, the Earth's resources of this isotope are extremely small, but helium-3 is extremely abundant on the Moon. Therefore, if we one day manage to develop a commercial fusion reactor operating on helium-3 fuel, the Moon may become a key place for the extraction of this raw material – although for now this is, of course, a matter of quite a distant future.
