MAX Power Mining (CSE: MAXX; OTC: MAXXF) said Friday it has acquired key permits covering 155,125 acres, or 628 sq. km, contiguous to its 1,224 sq. km Lawson project in south-central Saskatchewan. The permits extend southeast toward Moose Jaw and form part of a material expansion of the company’s permitted landholdings in the region.

Drilling is continuing at the Lawson discovery, where MAX Power is carrying out a multi-well commercial validation drill program. The company has said the program is seeking what it calls the “world’s first large-scale commercial discovery of natural hydrogen.” Natural hydrogen refers to hydrogen that occurs in the subsurface through geological processes, a still-emerging exploration category distinct from hydrogen manufactured from natural gas or water.

Moose Jaw sits on the western flank of a major corridor that includes heavy industry and one of Canada’s largest data center developments. MAX Power and the City of Moose Jaw recently signed a memorandum of understanding to explore joint opportunities related to what the company describes as the world’s first new primary energy source in decades.

The newly acquired permitted land package next to Lawson has been named the Aurora project. MAX Power described Aurora as a basement-controlled structural play that, like Lawson, may be hosted by a large alkaline igneous complex located along the contact between younger Paleoproterozoic exotic terrane and the older Archean Sask Craton.

According to the company, the geological model for Aurora is supported by interpreted source rocks, migration pathways, reservoirs, structural traps and seals. MAX Power said the 628 sq. km permit package is interpreted to cover ground with Lawson-like, high-impact, near-term potential for multiple natural hydrogen discoveries and commercialization pathways. The permitting expansion gives the company a broader area over which to test whether the same geological concept being evaluated at Lawson is present across adjacent ground.

Overall, based on in-house analysis of comprehensive proprietary geological and geophysical datasets, MAX Power has added 660,263 acres, or 2,672 sq. km, of provincial government-issued permits across the Genesis Trend and elsewhere in south-central Saskatchewan. The company said it is targeting the world’s first large-scale commercial development of natural hydrogen as a new primary energy source near a major industrial corridor.

“Expanding our permit coverage to this scale gives us great optionality, including new potential monetization opportunities and advancement of our near-term commercialization strategy as our confidence around Lawson and the geological model grows by the day,” MAX Power CEO Ran Narayanasamy said in a news release.

“We are driven by a ‘months to molecules’ approach that will lead to a further expansion of permits as success on the ground accelerates.”