PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed junior Berkeley Energia has launched optimisation studies at its Salamanca uranium project, in Spain, in order to reduce operating costs.
The recent inclusion of the high-grade Zona 7 deposit into the Salamanca prefeasibility study had transformed the economics of the project, resulting in estimates of saleable production of 4.3-million pounds of uranium oxide a year, over a mine-life of 18 years.
The study estimated a net present value of $871.3-million and an internal rate of return of 93.3%, with capital expenditure to first production tipped at $81.4-million. C1 cash costs for the life of the mine have been estimated at $17.5/lb.
Berkeley MD Paul Atherley said on Monday that the company was focusing on reducing the operating costs at the Salamanca project, with the aim of making the project the world’s lowest cost producer.
“Early indications from the optimsiation studies have demonstrated that while the project has benefited from on average a 42% increase in grade from the Zona 7 ore during the first ten years of operation, there is room for further improvements, particularly in the material handling scheduling, strip ratio, the mining unit rates and the fixed costs associated with grade control drilling and assaying.”
Atherley said that the project also continued to benefit from external factors such as continued deflationary trends arising from strong ongoing competition among major contractors and suppliers, as well as the depreciation of the Euro against the US dollar.
The optimisation work forms part of the definitive feasibility study, which would enable funding and sales contracts to be put in place before the start of construction in mid-2016.