Berkeley Energia brings forward construction of processing plant

(ShareCast News) - Uranium explorer Berkeley Energia has bought land in Spain to accelerate the development of its mine and brought forward construction of its processing plant by several months.Following an equity placing, the AIM-listed company bought the lease of over 500 hundred hectares of land, which will allow it to complete the initial infrastructure currently underway, start construction of a processing plant in the first quarter of 2017, along with that of a medium-voltage substation and a reagent storage facility.Amec Foster Wheeler, which is carrying out the front-end engineering design, has made enquiries for equipment for the crushing circuit to complete purchase orders before the end of the year.In August, construction at the Salamanca mine started with the re-routing of existing electrical power lines and a 5km realignment of an existing road.Managing director Paul Atherley said: "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."Shares in Berkeley Energia were down 0.56% to 44.50p at 1216 GMT. Berkeley Eng