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LONDON (Alliance News) - Berkeley Resources Limited said Wednesday that its Salamanca project in Spain continued to advance during the quarter, boosted by the mining licence granted for the Retortillo project.
The Australia-based mineral exploration company said that following the mining licence grant, it can now finalise the approval processes associated with other key permits, including the initial authorisation of the process plant as a radioactive facility and the exceptional authorisation for land use of the affected surface land area at Retortillo.
Last week the uranium exploration and development firm was granted the mining licence for Retortillo deposit, part of its flagship Salamanca Project in Spain. Berkeley said the Retorillo deposit is the first resource from which production is scheduled to commence, and the grant of the mining licence is a major milestone, following the completion of a number of studies and technical review sessions with relevant government agencies.
The Mining Licence is valid for an initial period of 30 years and may be renewed for two additional periods of 30 years. It covers an area of 25.2 square kilometres and includes the entire area containing the Retortillo Mineral Resource Estimate.
In a quarterly update to March 31, 2014, the firm said that it finalised the scope of work for the Salamanca project's Definitive Feasibility Study, with key areas of focus including resource infill drilling programmes and further metallurgical testwork programmes. Berkeley said it will commence work programmes for key inputs to the DFS, including metallurgical testwork and hydrogeological studies, during the current quarter.
During the quarter, detailed work programmes have been developed for the metallurgical testwork to be conducted at the Mintek mineral processing facility in Johannesburg and the hydrogeological studies for both Retortillo and Alameda, said Berkeley; set to commence during the current quarter.
The firm said no drilling was completed during the quarter but the planning for the next phase of drilling at Zona 7 was finalised. Zona 7 will see drilling commence in May and will comprise of approximately 600 metres of diamond core and 2,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling, aimed at infilling the zone of mineralisation defined by the 2013 drilling and extending it further to the south-west, said Berkeley.
In September last year, the company completed a preliminary feasibility study on the integrated development of Retortillo and Alameda, which demonstrated the Salamanca Project's potential to support a significant scale, long life uranium mining operation. Using the latest Minerla Resource Estimates, Berkeley said the project can support an average annual production of 3.3 million pounds of U3O8 during the seven years of steady state operation and 2.7 million pounds of uranium oxide over a minimum eleven year mine life.
Shares in Berkeley Resources last traded down 0.72% at 15.51 pence per share.
By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance
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