From asbestos capital to green hydrogen frontier

The drilling site operated by Vema Hydrogen at Thetford Mines — Ian Willms/The New York Times

OUTSIDE the city of Thetford Mines, Quebec, in a region that once supplied the world with asbestos, workers are drilling underground in search of an unusual and potentially vast new source of clean energy.

A startup called Vema Hydrogen has drilled two test wells into the bedrock, each 304m deep, and is starting to inject treated water into the iron-rich rocks below.