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LONDON (Alliance News) - Berkeley Energia Ltd said Monday it has "strong and growing" local support for its Salamanca project in western Spain with over 1,600 signatures for its Si a la Mina campaign.
The company said it has received 22,850 job applications, with 400 coming from villages surrounding the mine, with 116 from Villavieja alone, which represents 25% of the permanent population of the village.
Berkeley Energia said it is "working closely" with legal advisors and relevant authorities to seek out an "express resolution" from the local municipality on the award of the Urbanism Licence.
The clean energy company said it has initiated a programme to reduce local and corporate costs over the lack of certainty on the timing of when it can begin construction.
Berkeley Energia has 2.8 million pounds of triuranium octoxide, a compound of uranium, under long term contracts and reveiced "growing interest" in the quarter in further offtake arrangements from utilities in the US, China and India.
The company said it will increase its offtaking activity this year once full construction of the Salamanca mine is underway. It will participate in public and private offtake opportunities.
The average fixed price per pound of contracted and optional volumes is above USD42 per pound. This compares favourably with the current spot price of around USD27.38 per pound.
Berkeley Energia said the potential exists to increase annual contracted volumes further, as well as extend the contracts, by a total of 1.3 million pounds.
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Paul Atherley said: "Over the past decade we have invested over EUR70 million into the Salamanca mine which is located in a region suffering from some of the highest levels of youth unemployment within the European Union.
"Our future EUR250 million investment requires no government subsidy, will potentially generate over 2,500 direct and indirect jobs, will stimulate the return of services such as schools, petrol stations and transport to the local villages and has the potential to bring back some of the 120,000 mainly young people who have left the area over the last few years to look for employment.
"We are firmly committed to developing the mine however continued investment is dependent on the company receiving the necessary approvals for the commencement of construction."
Shares in Berkeley Energia closed up 1.2% 26.50 pence each.