Berkeley Energia Plc (LON:BKY) boss Paul Atherley has welcomed the progress at the Salamanca mine development in Spain which, in his words, is bringing the company closer to becoming one of the top ten uranium producers globally.
In a quarterly operations update, Berkeley highlighted that all infrastructure work is now on-track for completion as planned, key pieces of long lead time equipment arrived on site, front-end engineering design was completed, and land acquisition is now almost complete.
It also began fresh exploration works, aimed at finding additional resources similar to Salamanca’s Zona 7.
READ: Berkeley Energia move to construction phase at Salamanca as crusher arrives
During the period, the group made progress on the financial side of the project – with upfront capital costs reduced to around €82mln (from US$94mln) and the company ended the period with a robust balance sheet including US$26mln of cash and no debt.
Significantly, the company highlighted that it is seeing “strong and continued interest” from strategic investors and financiers.
Berkeley also noted signs that the uranium market is improving. It said that production cuts among high-cost operators continue to bring the market back into balance and, at the same time, the company is seeing increased off-take contract invitations from utilities.
Atherley, in the statement, said: "We are pleased with progress during the quarter which included the delivery of the crusher to site, the finalisation of capex and a significant strengthening of the Board and management team.
“The progress moves us closer to potentially being one of the top ten uranium producers globally, with one of the lowest production costs. We are extremely well positioned to provide our concentrate to the 130 strong reactor fleet in the European Union as well as utilities further abroad.
He added: “The continued success of our long-term off-take programme at exceptional prices demonstrates the Salamanca mine's unique advantage of offering diversification of supply away from non-OECD countries towards first world jurisdictions.”
Berkeley currently has some 2.75mln tonnes of uranium concentrate under long term contract, for the mine’s first six years of operation (plus 1.25mln of optional volumes) and so far the average fixed price per pound of contracted and optional volumes is above US$42 per pound.