BERKELEY ENERGIA
NEWS RELEASE | 5 August 2021
Permitting Update
Berkeley Energia Limited ("Berkeley" or the "Company") advises that it has taken further steps to overturn the previously announced unfavorable decision by the Nuclear Safety Council ("NSC") for the grant of the Authorisation for Construction for the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility ("NSC II") at the Company's Salamanca project (see announcement dated 12 July 2021).
Berkeley has submitted further documentation to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge ("MITECO") in which the Company, with strongly supported arguments, dismantles all of the technical issues used by the NSC as justification to issue the unfavourable report.
The Company strongly refutes the NSCs assessment and believes that the project is compliant with all requirements for NSC II to be awarded however, the NSC still adopted an unfavourable decision. In the Company's opinion therefore, the technical issues raised by the NSC lack both technical and legal support.
This new documentation is in addition to the 'Improvement Report' to supplement the Company's initial NSC II Application, along with the corresponding arguments that address all of the issues raised by the NSC, and a request for its reassessment by the NSC, that was submitted to MITECO in late July (see announcement dated 23 July 2021).
The Improvement Report was complemented by an Independent Expert's technical opinion on the hydrogeological aspects of the project produced by Prof. Rafael Fernández Rubio, Emeritus Professor of Hydrogeology at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Berkeley's new documentation has been submitted to MITECO, as part of the previously disclosed hearing process in relation to the unfavorable NSC II decision, prior to the deadline for submissions. The Company is yet to receive a response from MITECO regarding its submissions.
It should also be noted that more than 120 previous permits and favourable reports have been granted by the relevant authorities at the local, regional, federal and European Union levels in relation to the Salamanca project, among which nine have been from the NSC.
The Company will continue to strongly defend its position in relation to the adverse decision by the NSC and will continue to update the market on any material developments as they occur.
For further information please contact:
Robert Behets Francisco Bellón
Acting Managing Director Chief Operations Officer
+61 8 9322 6322 +34 91 555 1380
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