2023-07-24 19:20:00
The actions of Berkeley, the Australian company that has been fighting for years to open a uranium mine in Retortillo (Salamanca), move to the electoral sound. If the results smile at the PP, they go up. But if they are in favor of the PSOE, which has paralyzed the project, they go down. And those of yesterday, which leave Alberto Núñez Feijóo in a difficult situation to form a government, have been a real jug of cold water for Berkeley.
The company’s shares have plummeted 38.4% today on the stock market today, being the most punished value in the Spanish market and falling back to 0.251 euros. The result is completely the opposite of the one registered on May 29. Then, one day after the PP, which is considered more likely to launch the project, won the regional and municipal elections, their titles shot up 21%. That same day, Pedro Sánchez announced the calling of the regional elections last Sunday that seemed to augur a change of government that does not seem to be so easy to materialize.
Dispute
The uranium mine project in Retortillo is currently paralyzed by government decision. Last February, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge dismissed the administrative appeal filed by Berkeley against the dismissal by this same department of the authorization to build the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility in the Salamanca project.
The cabinet led by Teresa Ribera had already rejected the “NSC II” project in November 2021 after receiving an unfavorable report for the concession issued by the Nuclear Safety Council Board (CSN) in July of that same year.
Following this decision, the company filed a contentious appeal before the National Court in April. The dismissal by the Ministry of the contentious-administrative appeal concluded the process, despite the fact that, in accordance with Spanish law, Berkeley now presented a new appeal to “continue defending its position.” In the company’s opinion, the Ministry has dismissed the application for its project for Retorrillo and the administrative appeal “without following the legally established procedure”, without taking into account the various “Improvement Reports” that complemented the initial application, which implies, according to the company, that the rejection “is not legal”.
The Hearing may not be the last stop in the legal dispute initiated by Berkeley. The company is also weighing the option of resorting to international arbitration to defend its rights in a project in which it ensures that it has already invested more than 100 million euros.
Defending
Today, in a relevant fact sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the company has assured that although its objective is to resolve the current permit situation and, ultimately, advance the Salamanca project towards production, it will continue to “firmly defend its position and take all necessary measures to preserve its rights”.
In this sense, he has reiterated that the initiation of the contentious-administrative appeal is necessary to preserve his rights, although he remains willing to collaborate with the competent authorities and “maintains the hope that the permit situation can be resolved amicably”.
Likewise, the group has highlighted that the prospects for the global market for nuclear energy and uranium “continued to strengthen” during this second quarter of the year.
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