The Salamanca Project is located in a historic uranium mining area in Western Spain about three hours west of Madrid. The project is operated by Berkeley Minera España S.L. ("BME"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkeley Energia Limited (“Berkeley”).
Unless otherwise indicated, the scientific and technical information herein regarding the Salamanca Project has been derived from Berkeley's Annual Report for the year ended June 30, 2023, its Quarterly Activities Report for the period ended March 31, 2024, and its other public disclosures, copies of which are available under its website.
The Salamanca project is made up of three distinct deposits which will be mined independently of each other, Retortillo (including the Santidad satellite deposit), Zona 7, and Alameda.
Retortillo and Zona 7 will be mined sequentially with ore being processed in a common processing facility while Alameda will be mined in parallel with the other sites. Processing of the Alameda ore will initially take place on-site, with loaded resin then transported 50 km by road to the Retortillo plant for final processing.
All the deposits being considered are shallow (ranging between 0m to 160m depth below surface) and massive. Due to the depth and geometry of the deposit, the selected mining method is conventional drill blast truck and shovel open pit mining.
Metallurgical test work has demonstrated that the mineralised material at all the deposits is amenable to a heap leaching process for the extraction of the uranium. Following heap leaching the pregnant solution will undergo ion exchange, solvent extraction and precipitation of ammonium diuranate, an intermediate step before precipitation of U3O8.
| Mineral Resources – As of June 30th, 2023 (100% Basis) | ||||||||
| Measured | Indicated | Inferred | ||||||
| Tonnes (‘000’s) | Grade (% U3O8) | Content (Lbs. U3O8) | Tonnes (‘000’s) | Grade (% U3O8) | Content (Lbs. U3O8) |
Tonnes (‘000’s) | Grade (% U3O8) | Content (Lbs. U3O8) |
| 9.3 | 0.06 | 12.3 | 41.8 | 0.05 | 47.5 | 31.5 | 0.04 | 29.6 |
Note that mineral resources:
The Company owns a 0.375% NSR royalty on the Salamanca Project located in northwestern Spain. The royalty was established in an agreement between Berkeley Minera España S.L. ("BME"), Berkeley Energia Limited (“Berkeley”), Berkeley Exploration Limited ("BEL"), and RCF V Annex Fund L.P. on June 30, 2016. The royalty allows for deductions for smelting, refining, sampling and assay treatment charges, penalty charges, smelting assay costs, umpire assay costs, transportation costs between the mining area and the smelter/refinery, taxes based directly or assessed on the value or quantity of product, and costs related to marketing or sale of the product.
In 2016, Berkeley published the results of a Definitive Feasibility Study for the Salamanca Project (the "Salamanca DFS"), and in news release dated May 28, 2024, Berkeley announced a JORC resource estimate for the Salamanca Project with estimated measured mineral resources of 12.3 Mlbs U3O8 (9.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.06% U3O8), indicated mineral resources of 47.5 Mlbs U3O8 (41.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.05% U3O8), and inferred mineral resources of 29.6 Mlbs U3O8 (31.5 million tons at an average grade of 0.04% U3O8). The cut-off grade applied to resources was 200 ppm U3O8 for all deposits.
As disclosed in the Salamanca DFS, as at the date thereof, Berkeley had received all the European Union, National, Regional, and Provincial level approvals required for the commencement of initial infrastructure development of the project, including a 30-year mining license valid until 2044 and renewable for two further 30 year periods, a Favorable Declaration of Environmental Impact and approvals from the water authority and initial authorization for the process plant.
Berkeley received the Authorization of Exceptional Land Use ("AEUL") and the Urbanism License ("UL") in July 2017 and August 2020 from the Regional Commission of Environment and Urbanism, and the Municipality of Retortillo respectively.
As disclosed in the Berkeley 2023 Annual Report, during the year ended June 30, 2023, BME submitted a contentious-administrative appeal before the Spanish National Court. This submission followed notification from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge ("MITECO") in relation to the rejection of the administrative appeal filed by BME against MITECO’s rejection of the Authorization for Construction for the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility ("NSC II") at the Salamanca project.
On December 26, 2023, the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León issued two rulings in which it declared null and void the AEUL and UL. In January 2024, the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León rejected the appeal presented by Berkeley against the ruling issued by the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León.
On May 28, 2024, Berkeley announced that BEL had filed a Request for Arbitration for its investments in Spain through its Spanish subsidiary BME, initiating arbitration proceedings against Spain at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. BME withdrew the cassation appeals against the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León judgements before the Spanish Supreme Court to preserve BEL's rights under international arbitration.
There can be no assurance that such proceedings will be successful.
Previous exploration at Alameda was completed initially by JEN and ENUSA, both Spanish state-run companies, from the late 1950's through to the mid 1980's. Work completed by JEN and ENUSA included mapping, radiometric surveys, trenching, RP, RC and DD drilling.
On July 16, 2008, Berkeley Resources Ltd announced that the company had been chosen by ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas S.A. as that company's partner to conduct a feasibility study upon and ultimately develop ENUSA's uranium mining assets in Salamanca Province, Spain.
On Dec. 9, 2008, Berkeley advised that they had agreed the terms of a Co-operation Agreement with ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas S.A., pursuant to which Berkeley would undertake a Feasibility Study with a view to re-commencing uranium mining based on ENUSA and Berkeley's assets in Salamanca Province, Spain. On April 27, 2009, Berkeley announced that the Spanish Council of Ministers has approved the co-operation agreement with ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas SA.
Berkeley announced completion of a scoping study on the project on February 14, 2008. A pre-feasibility study for the project was completed in September 2013 and further updated in November 2015 by including the resources from the Zona 7 deposit. The definitive feasibility study was completed in July 2016.
All announcements are available on Berkeley’s website as well as under Berkeley’s profile on the ASX.
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Uranium Royalty Corp.
1188 West Georgia Street, Suite 1830
Vancouver, BC, V6E 4A2
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