Space Twitter is dribbling out the results of a "workshop" last week at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. The fourth such held by that Agency.
Some releases are out, like this one from Pulsar Helium (perhaps distinct from the Sunbird guys). It's restricted, although I don't know how. Nor - since the interdicted regions include Australia and Japan - why. (South Africa, I could grok.)
The report notes the supply / demand curve for Helium-3. Demand is set to spike due to quantum computing, operating at the centiKelvins; even leaving aside the Sunbird roggets. Presently the supply is decay of tritium which is had at the DoE's Savannah River. It turns out He-3 can also be extracted from certain natural-gas deposits. Most-accessible to Americans is one "Topaz" field in rocky Minnesota, the "Jetstream #1" well. We just haven't much tried said extraxion, by this point. I expect the Australians and South Africans, owning Minnesota-like geology, would love so to try.
Another company, Lunar He-3 Mining, has a technology for extracting this gas. Despite the name, the tech isn't just for the moon.
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