Berkeley Energia raising up to $30m for Salamanca project

The company said the fundraising would take place through the issue of new ordinary shares at a price of 45p, to raise between $25m to $30m before expenses.

It said the placing shares are being offered by way of an accelerated bookbuild, which was launched immediately after its announcement on Friday morning.

The board explained that, following a decade of exploration and $60m of investment, development of the Salamanca mine commenced in August 2016 and is now well underway.

Its goal is to establish the mine as one of the world's lowest cost uranium producers, the board said, providing reliable long term supply for customers from within the European Union.

The $100m project will be Europe's only major uranium mine, Berkeley claimed, and once in production will be one of the world's biggest producers supplying more than four million pounds of uranium concentrate a year, equivalent to approximately 10% of the continent's total requirement.

“The funds raised will be used to bring forward the construction of the crushing circuit and other facilities associated with the main construction to early next year,” said managing director Paul Atherley.

“The response from the local community to the initial infrastructure development has been overwhelmingly positive particularly those locals that have gained jobs with contracts after attending the company's skills training programmes.

“The mine will create over 450 full time jobs and 2,000 indirect once in full production to a region badly hit by long term unemployment,” he added.