QIMC Identifies Three Helium Zones in Nova Scotia Exploration

Québec Innovative Materials Corp. (QIMC), a North American exploration and development company advancing a portfolio of natural hydrogen and critical mineral projects, has announced significant findings from its 2026 helium soil-gas program in the New Salem-Apple River area of the Cumberland Basin Project, Nova Scotia. The company's 526-sample 2026 program, conducted in collaboration with GeoFrontiers Corporation of Wichita Falls, Texas, has expanded the database of helium samples in the district from 28 to a total of 554, revealing three coherent helium zones associated with mapped regional faults.

The 526 samples were collected at stations spaced at 100-metre intervals along 28 road- and trail-based lines and analyzed independently by GeoFrontiers Corporation, a specialist soil-gas geochemistry laboratory with a history in petroleum and helium exploration dating back to 1978. The analysis established for the first time a statistically robust regional background of 5.40 ppmv and an anomaly threshold of 5.48 ppmv for the district. Of the 526 samples, 463 were classified as background and 63 as anomalous, including 18 as strongly anomalous, with helium concentrations exceeding the anomaly threshold at 17 of the 25 stations on line 5002, and an unbroken 800-meter run of anomalous stations.

The strongest helium concentration recorded to date in the Nova Scotia program was 5.864 ppmv, found in Zone C, which sits on a mapped regional fault and is 5.864 ppmv, the highest helium concentration of the program. Zone B, a 1.5-kilometre anomalous segment on line 5000, four kilometres west of Zone C on the same east-west fault (F-III), peaked at 5.690 ppmv. Zone A, the November 2025 New Salem traverse, which had helium concentrations up to 5.722 ppmv with thermogenic hydrocarbons, was confirmed to lie on fault F-I, 3-7 kilometers south-west of Zones B and C.

Faults control the helium, as evidenced by the 17% frequency of anomalous stations within 1.5 kilometers of a mapped fault, compared to the 3% frequency beyond 2 kilometers, a statistically robust relationship (p < 10⁻⁸). An additional target, a sharp helium peak of 5.831 ppmv on line 6002, sits on fault F-II on the Apple River side of the grid.

Next steps under way include densification sampling at 50-meter spacing across Zones B and C, C1-C4 hydrocarbon results from the same samples, and the expansion of the Nova Scotia 2D seismic program by an additional 8.5 line-kilometers, from 42 to approximately 50 line-kilometers, to target the new helium anomalies directly and cross all three zones, including a dedicated line across Zone C. The conventional, non-stimulated exploration and development model, which the Company does not intend to use, is consistent with the Company's approach to clean natural hydrogen along the Apple River-Bennett Hill corridor.

Québec Innovative Materials Corp. is increasing the sampling density to 50-meter spacing across Zones B and C, including six north-south cross-lines through the 3.5-kilometer gap between lines 5000 and 5002, with full QA/QC. The design of the expanded 2D seismic program, now approximately 50 line-kilometers including the additional 8.5 line-kilometers dedicated to the helium anomalies, has been finalized with Echo Seismic and Strum Consulting. Results of C1-C4 hydrocarbon analyses on the same sample set are being interpreted and will be reported in a subsequent release, together with the Company's integrated geophysical interpretation of the New Salem-Apple River structure.

No hydraulic fracturing, no reservoir stimulation. The gases identified at New Salem-Apple River are migrating naturally through faults and along the basement interface to the surface today. The exploration model is therefore conventional, consistent with the Company's approach to clean natural hydrogen along the Apple River-Bennett Hill corridor. QIMC does not use hydraulic fracturing or any other form of reservoir stimulation and has no intention of doing so in Nova Scotia. This is a natural-flow, low-footprint exploration and development model.