Berkeley pushes ahead with Salamanca build

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium developer Berkeley Energia has completed key land acquisitions that will allow the company to accelerate the development of its Salamanca project, in Spain.

Following a $30-million equity raising, Berkeley acquired and leased over 500 ha of land, which will allow for the completion of initial infrastructure currently under way, and for the start of processing plant construction in the first quarter of 2017, along with the construction of a medium voltage substation, reagent storage facilities and buildings.

“Following the strong financial backing from London’s blue chip institutions, we are accelerating the development of the Salamanca mine, bringing forward the commencement of construction of the processing plant by several months, and moving closer to our goal of becoming one of the world’s lowest cost uranium producers, reliably supplying long-term customers from the heart of the European Union,” said Berkeley MD Paul Atherley.

The Salamanca project is expected to deliver about 4.3-million pounds a year of uranium oxide over a mine life of 18 years. All major approvals for the development of the project are already in place. Project development started in March this year.

Berkeley recently signed an offtake agreement with commodity trader Interalloys Trading for the first two-million pounds of uranium produced at Salamanca, over a five-year period.