Quantum Helium is trying to unlock a bounty of gas that is central to the AI revolution.
Helium, as well as being used in MRI scanners, is an invisible component in semiconductor production: the elements that power Nvidia and Google's GPUs and TPUs.
And it is now deemed so important that the US authorities designated it a critical material last month.
Here in the UK, the market is catching on to the fact (albeit slowly).
Quantum's shares rose 31% this week after the AIM-listed explorer started a major stimulation programme at its Sagebrush-1 well in Colorado.
Stimulation is a form of fracking: fluid and a sand-like material called proppant are pumped into the rock to open pathways that let gas flow. Quantum, which holds a 90% interest in the well, is using a nitrogen-assisted foam to crack open the helium-bearing Leadville Formation.
The aim is to achieve stronger, more sustainable flow rates and show whether the well can produce helium commercially. Earlier tests at Sagebrush-1 found helium concentrations of about 2.5%, and historical testing recorded 2.76%.
Chief executive Howard McLaughlin said the timing was "particularly exciting" because the US government has recently designated helium a critical material.
Flow testing will follow once the well has been cleaned up, and the company has promised further updates as the work progresses.
AIM treads water
Turning to the wider market. In a week that saw global markets recover some ground after the great tech sell-off, the AIM All-Share underperformed its larger peers to end almost unchanged. The FTSE 100, its benchmark, added 2%.
Sticking with the week's winners, Aptamer Group jumped 28% after its directors agreed a self-imposed moratorium on converting their share options.
In August, the board was handed options to buy 193.5 million shares at just 0.1p each, which they could exercise straight away. Major investors, unsurprisingly, were a tad uncomfortable with this potential dilution.
So, the directors have now promised not to use those options until the share price has stayed above 0.6p for 30 trading days in a row. That removes the risk of a wave of insider selling.
Sabien lifeline
Elsewhere, Sabien Technology rose 27% after the energy-efficiency group's chairman agreed to lend it up to £100,000 more.
The short-term facility, from Richard Parris's company Parris Group, lifts some immediate pressure on funding. It doesn't come cheap: interest runs at about 30% a year, and each draw-down needs the lender's approval. Parris has already loaned £200,000. Even after this week's rise, the shares are down 40% so far this year.
EDX Medical climbed 26% after the diagnostics group signed a deal to sell a US-developed breast cancer test in the UK.
The test, made by Caris Life Sciences, uses artificial intelligence to analyse tumour samples. It predicts the risk of the cancer coming back over the five years after diagnosis and over the 10 years after that, all from a single test.
Bango lands a Qatari giant
Bango rose 22% after the Cambridge-based payments group signed a deal with Ooredoo, the Qatari telecoms company whose networks serve nearly 150 million customers.
Ooredoo's businesses across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia will use Bango's platform to bundle streaming and other subscriptions into their phone and broadband plans. The deal is with Ooredoo's group, so a single agreement covers all its markets.
PipeHawk clings on
Pipehawk was the week's biggest faller, dropping 35% and leaving the engineering group valued at just over £400,000.
Annual revenue halved to £1.8 million after it sold one subsidiary and another went bust. The auditor qualified the accounts because it couldn't verify the figures for the businesses that had gone.
It also warned that PipeHawk's survival depends on continued financial support from its chairman, Gordon Watt, who is already owed about £2.5 million in deferred fees and interest.
Quadrise also fell 34% after the fuel technology company revealed that its exclusive supply deal with Nouryon, the chemicals group that provides the emulsifiers for its fuels, had expired and would not be renewed until Quadrise has firm projects lined up.
Zanaga Iron Ore shares fell 28% after the company warned that a planned investment by Red Arc Minerals in its Congo iron ore project was unlikely to be agreed by the end-of-November deadline, and said it would hire an adviser to review other funding options.
Ingenta: a buying chance?
And finally, Ingenta shares fell 17% this week after the publishing software group said its largest customer would not renew two contracts worth about £2 million of revenue a year.
That is roughly a fifth of sales. Ingenta says cost cuts and a push into artificial intelligence should largely make up for the lost profit.
Broker Cavendish sees the sell-off as an opportunity and keeps its 'buy' rating and 130p target, more than double the current 55p share price. It points out that Ingenta trades at 7.7 times this year's earnings, against 18.2 times for its peers, and has £4.6 million of net cash, nearly half its £10.2 million market value.
