$EONE might be one of the more interesting natural hydrogen setups I’ve found

I came across a Barchart piece on Element One Hydrogen & Critical Minerals ($EONE), and there is one part of the story that completely changed how I look at this company. The bull case may ultimately come down to one question: what if hydrogen from rock can actually become cheaper than conventional fuel?

That sounds like a massive claim, so the caveat belongs right at the top. The economics discussed in the article come from EONE CEO Brad Kitchen and relate to a pre-commercial process. They have not yet been demonstrated at commercial scale. But the numbers are interesting enough that I think the experiment itself deserves attention.

Kitchen compares the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline across different hydrogen production methods. According to his estimates, green hydrogen can work out to roughly $10-$14 per gallon equivalent, while EONE's natural/stimulated hydrogen concept could potentially come in around $0.50-$1 per gallon equivalent. Again, those are management estimates rather than demonstrated production economics, but if field testing gets anywhere close to that range, the implications could be significant.

Hydrogen already has a huge industrial market. Global demand has surpassed 100 million tonnes annually, with most of it consumed in existing industries such as refining, ammonia, methanol and chemicals. The problem is that low-emissions hydrogen still represents only a tiny fraction of production. The market already exists. The difficult part is producing cleaner hydrogen cheaply enough to compete.

EONE is trying to attack that problem through geology. Certain ultramafic rocks can react with water and generate hydrogen naturally, but these geological reactions can happen extremely slowly. EONE has committed US$1.67 million over two years under a sponsored research agreement with Columbia University focused on stimulating geologic hydrogen generation and recovering critical metals.

According to the Barchart interview, Kitchen says the Columbia-related process could potentially reduce reaction-temperature requirements from roughly 300°C to 100°C, which in his view could allow operations at depths of roughly 500-1,000 metres. The article importantly notes that this specific temperature claim has not yet been confirmed in published research. Still, if the approach works, lower temperatures and shallower operating depths could have a major impact on eventual economics.

This is also where EONE starts becoming more interesting to me than a normal hydrogen explorer. The concept does not necessarily depend entirely on discovering a giant naturally occurring hydrogen reservoir. The company is investigating whether favorable geology can actually be stimulated to generate hydrogen from the rock itself.

Then there is the critical minerals side of the story. EONE is looking at whether these same ultramafic rock systems could potentially produce magnesium, nickel and other critical minerals alongside hydrogen, with CO2 mineralization potentially becoming another component of the process. That creates a very different economic model from a project where one commodity has to carry everything.

Kitchen told Barchart that EONE is targeting roughly 100,000 tonnes of material annually after 2-3 years and believes the magnesium operation could eventually generate around $95 million in annual revenue. That's another management projection, and EONE currently has no revenue from this proposed operation, so I wouldn't value the company as though that revenue already exists. What interests me is the underlying multi-output concept.

EONE has also been working toward a proposed Washington State demonstration platform using olivine feedstock. Its Twin Sisters agreement contemplates at least 50,000 tonnes of olivine annually for five years, potentially expanding to 100,000 tonnes annually, alongside access to a proposed plant site. The planned demonstration facility is targeting roughly 150 tonnes per day and would evaluate production of hydrogen alongside Class 1 nickel concentrate, magnesium hydroxide, iron oxide and silica.

That matters because the potential economics are no longer simply "sell hydrogen for more than it costs to make." If the technology works, the same feedstock could potentially generate several saleable products while addressing another major North American problem: critical-mineral dependence. Magnesium is particularly interesting because U.S. primary magnesium production stopped in 2022 and the country remains heavily dependent on imports.

There are some enormous numbers being discussed around the hydrogen resource itself. Kitchen told Barchart that even recovering 25% of the hydrogen projected from one project could potentially represent 14-35 million tonnes of hydrogen, which he equated to roughly 275-686 million barrels of oil equivalent. That's the number I would personally apply the biggest discount to right now. EONE is still pre-production, and laboratory chemistry, geological resource potential and commercially recoverable hydrogen are three very different things.

That's also why the upcoming field work is probably much more important than the giant theoretical numbers. Field testing is planned for next summer, and EONE also intends to drill for naturally trapped hydrogen accumulations in British Columbia, Alberta and Utah. Eventually, there should be a much cleaner way to judge whether the chemistry and geological thesis can translate outside the laboratory.

For me, that's what makes $EONE a bullish but still highly speculative early-stage story. The interesting part isn't simply that the company is searching for hydrogen. It's testing whether abundant rock, water and chemistry can potentially create a low-cost energy source while recovering valuable critical minerals from the same geological system.

If those economics don't translate outside the lab, many of the huge projections won't matter. But if EONE can demonstrate even a fraction of the cost advantage management is discussing, the company starts looking very different from a conventional early-stage hydrogen explorer. Potentially low-cost hydrogen, critical minerals from the same rock, domestic North American supply exposure and Columbia-backed research are all converging on one platform.

The science is still ahead of the commercial proof, which is exactly why I find this stage interesting. The next meaningful field results should help determine whether EONE remains an interesting research story or starts developing into something much more significant.

Source: Barchart, Aug. 14, 2026. Several cost, production and revenue figures discussed above are management estimates and have not yet been demonstrated commercially.