Our company
Energy experts work to unlock natural hydrogen and helium
Gold Hydrogen was one of the first companies in the world to prove that high levels of both natural hydrogen and helium exist underground.
This has been achieved at its Ramsay Project on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, a 100% owned exploration project covering 75,000 sq km of permitted tenement (PEL 687).
The two sites drilled so far were identified after South Australian State Department geologists’ reports were uncovered from the 1920s and 30s. These showed natural hydrogen, which they had no use for back then, had been found while exploring for oil.
More than a century later, we have looked at these results with a new understanding that naturally occurring hydrogen could be the key to unlocking a revolutionary low-cost fuel source with huge implications for net zero carbon goals.
With a town in Mali, Africa, being powered by natural hydrogen for some years, we went back to the original South Australia petroleum test sites and had phenomenal results.
In 2023/24, we reported finds of natural hydrogen up to 95.8% purity and helium up to 36.9% purity. In a major boost to the company, traces of the extremely rare and valuable variant Helium3 were found in the latest samples.
Data from the two test sites has been matched with seismic and other survey results to identify up to five new sites that will be test drilled in 2025. The data suggests the latest targets are likely to record higher hydrogen and helium levels.
Successful results will lead to completion of a pilot project with the aim of commercialising both gases.
Meet our team
Neil McDonald
Managing Director
Alexander Downer
Independent Non-Executive Chair
Katherine Barnet
Independent Non-Executive Director
Roger Cressey
Executive Director, Commercial & Operations
Karl Schlobohm
Company Secretary & Chief Financial Officer
Peter Bubendorfer
Chief Geologist
Frank Glass
Chief Exploration Advisor
Billy Hadi Subrata
Chief Technical Officer
Julien Bourdet
Geological Advisor
Neil McDonald
Managing Director
- 20+ years of extensive commercial experience from greenfield exploration to early development.
- Operated across multiple energy and minerals sectors in Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia
- His work for resources companies has led to over $230M+ raised for projects and over $20M in R&D credits plus government grants
- Strong legal grounding in commercial and regulatory compliance of the resources industry including the acquisition, commercialisation and monetisation of assets
- Strong non-partisan relationships at the highest political levels at both Federal and State levels
- A qualified Lawyer and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Katherine Barnet
Independent Non-Executive Director
- A financial professional and Chartered Accountant (Fellow, MCom FCA) with a 25+ year career in professional services
- Partner at Olvera Advisors, a boutique Sydney-based consultancy having worked on some of Australia’s largest corporate matters in particular for renewable energy, resources, retail, property and construction
Alexander Downer
Independent Non-Executive Chair
- One of the country’s best known politicians and diplomats incl. as leader of the Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs and High Commissioner to the UK
- Chair of the International School of Government (Kings College, London), Chair of Policy Exchange, and Trustee of International Crisis Group
- Advisor or board member to Hakluyt & Company, Cappello Capital Corp, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Huawei in Australia, Ironbark Zinc (ASX:IBC), and Yellowcake plc (LSE:YCA)
Roger Cressey
Executive Director, Commercial & Operations
- Over 35 years of experience in resource industries, predominantly in gas exploration and production, and also in minerals processing and materials handling
- Held CEO, COO and other executive roles on upstream and downstream operations across Australia, as well as in PNG, Indonesia and Uganda
Karl Schlobohm
Company Secretary & Chief Financial Officer
- A Chartered Accountant with 30 years’ experience across a wide range of industries
- Held positions as CFO, Company Secretary and / or Non-Executive Director of DGR Global Ltd (ASX), SolGold plc (LSE / TSX), IronRidge Resources (LSE:AIM), Agenix Limited (ASX), Discovery Metals Limited (ASX), and a range of other ASX listed companies
Peter Bubendorfer
Chief Geologist
Peter’s career to this point spans over 30 years, and he brings with him extensive experience in exploration within the oil & gas industry across Australia, specifically regarding natural gas and CSG, these being gases which correlate well with the Company’s Hydrogen and Helium gases. Peter also has strong exploration experience across a range of mineral commodities throughout Australia. Over the past 25 years, he has held exploration manager, senior geologist, chief geologist or development geologist roles with ADZ Energy, Armour Energy, Bow Energy and Arrow Energy. Peter has specific experience in the identification of gas-related leads and plays, the establishment and running of exploration programs, seismic interpretation, dataset analysis (geochemistry, geophysics, drilling and testing logs, etc), governmental liaison and reporting, and all aspects of geological project assessment and fieldwork.
Peter was responsible for identifying and generating the foundational assets for Arrow Energy, Bow Energy and Waratah Coal, all of which were subject to corporate take-overs. He has academic qualifications in science (geology), holds a legal practising certificate, and is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Frank Glass
Chief Exploration Advisor
- Geologist and geoscientist
- Petroleum and energy resources sector experience of well over 30 years, including a decade spent with Shell
- Masters Degree in Structural Geology from the University of Amsterdam
- Holds numerous professional memberships including the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers
Billy Hadi Subrata
Chief Technical Officer
Billy Hadi Subrata has 20 years of experience working with Australian and international energy operator across multiple basins in Australia, New Zealand, East Africa, and Papua New Guinea.
A petroleum and reservoir engineer by background, Billy has developed a substantial skill in both exploration and development mainly for reservoir simulation and modeling, field appraisal and development planning, reserves and resources estimation, project management and economics, subsurface to surface integration, Hydrogen, Helium and energy transition.
He has been a key focal point in Gold Hydrogen having joined the company since the first inception back in 2021.
Billy is a Qualified Petroleum Reserves and Resources Evaluator (QPRRE) and a member of SPE and Engineers Australia.
Julien Bourdet
Geological Advisor
Julien Bourdet is a geological advisor consultant. He worked 16 years at CSIRO conducting research aiming at evaluating geological fluid and diagenesis and delivered petrological and fluid inclusion consulting. He has extensive contributions in the field of oil and gas exploration and development and on the natural hydrogen systems. He earned his PhD at the University of Lorraine in France.
Corporate governance
For more information on Gold Hydrogen’s corporate governance, including to access key documents, please visit the Corporate governance page.