Study estimates 3.3Mlb output from Berkeley’s Salamanca
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) into uranium explorer Berkeley Resources’ Salamanca project, in Spain, has revealed that it could produce some 3.3-million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) a year, over a seven year period.
Using only the current mineral resource estimate of 34.5-million pounds U3O8, the project life could be extended to 11 years, at a yearly production rate of 2.7-million pounds U3O8.
There was also the strong potential to increase either the throughput rate or the mine life with further exploratory work, the company said.
The PFS was based on openpit mining, heap leaching and a centralised processing plant at the Retortillo deposit, as well as a remote ion exchange operation at the Alameda deposit. Loaded resin would be trucked to the centralised plant for final extraction and purification.
An initial capital cost of $95.1-million has been attached to the start of production at Retortillo, with a further $74.4-million capital spend expected for the second year of production to develop and start production at Alameda, and to achieve steady-state production.
Berkeley told shareholders on Thursday that the project’s capital cost reflected the excellent existing infrastructure, the use of leaching as the processing route, and the favoured mining contractor scenario.
A number of opportunities also existed to further enhance the project’s economics through capital and operation cost reductions that were identified in the PFS.
Berkeley would now move to undertake a review process to assess these cost-saving opportunities and to define a key works programme to be incorporated into the final scope of the definitive feasibility study, which would be completed by the end of 2014.
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