Pre-construction activities advancing at Berkeley Energia’s Salamanca mine
 

Berkeley Energia is pleased to announce that the pre-construction site based activities are advancing at its 100% owned Salamanca mine located in a historic mining region in western Spain. 
 
Commenting on the progress of the Salamanca mine, Managing Director Paul Atherley, stated:
 
“Since our oversubscribed institutional fundraise late last year, we have been delivering on the site-based activities leading up to the main construction, which we expect will commence later in the year.
 
We now have over 50 staff and contractors on site and are continuing to take on more staff from those local people who have attended our skills training courses as construction commences.
 
Our continued operating and capital cost optimisation moves us closer to establishing Salamanca as a reliable low cost supplier to global utilities from the heart of the Europe Union. 
 
Euratom has welcomed the security of supply Salamanca brings to the European Community which generates over 25% of its electricity from nuclear power.
 
The European nuclear trade body Foratom has described nuclear power as indispensable to the EU's aim to decarbonise the economy by more than 80% by 2050.” 
 
Work on the ground in preparation for the commencement of construction has progressed well with over 600 hectares acquired or leased to date under the land acquisition programme and with only a few hectares remaining to be acquired. 
 
The road deviation is advancing and the new road will be ready for use in the European summer. The equipment procurement for the electrical power line has been completed and the upgrade to the existing line will commence once the road construction is complete. 
 
The crushing circuit, screens, feeders and ancillary equipment are currently being fabricated by established equipment suppliers, Sandvik in Finland and Vibramech in South Africa. 
 
The Company has entered into a preliminary agreement with Asturiana de Zinc SAU a Glencore Company to supply locally sourced reagent from 2018 to 2021 at a cost substantially below the one estimated in the Definitive Feasibility Study. These reagent costs represent approximately 30% of the overall process operating costs.
 
In addition, the Company has now received final proposals from a number of experienced and reputable mining contractors and has been pleased with the highly competitive nature of the bids received.
 
The Company is building a successful track record of cost optimisation, the order of the first major items for the crushing circuit, placed in December last year, was more than 20% below estimates from the Definitive Feasibility Study.
 
The Company will continue to pursue cost optimisation opportunities as it proceeds towards production to ensure that the Salamanca mine establishes itself at the bottom of the cost curve in terms of capital and operating costs once in production.
 
The Company holds itself to the highest standards and its commitment to environmental excellence is evidence of this. The Environmental License and the Environmental Measures Plan detail that the Company will plant 30,000 young oak trees, a six-fold increase on the number of older trees being cleared, greatly improving the ecological and agricultural value of the area.
 
This reforestation has now commenced following an agreement with the highly supportive local municipality of Vitigudino which details the arrangements for planting 20,000 young oak trees over a 50 hectare plot. 

To read the full announcement please click here.

To watch Paul Atherley's latest update on the Salamanca project please click here

To ask questions to Managing Director Paul Atherley about the latest news from the Salamanca project and register for our upcoming Q&A session, please email your questions to info@berkeleyenergia.com by Tuesday 2nd May and details will follow.

Kind Regards,

Katie Ryall 
+44 (0)203 903 1930