Berkeley Energia - Permitting Update
07/02/2023 13:12
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RNS Number : 2042P Berkeley Energia Limited 07 February 2023
BERKELEY ENERGIA LIMITED
NEWS RELEASE | 7 February 2023
Permitting update
Berkeley Energia Limited ("Berkeley" or the "Company") advises that it has
received formal notification from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and
the Demographic Challenge ("MITECO") that it has rejected the Company's
administrative appeal against MITECO's rejection of the Authorisation for
Construction for the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility ("NSC
II") at the Salamanca project.
As previously disclosed, MITECO rejected NSC II in November 2021 following an
unfavourable report for the grant of NSC II issued by the Board of
the Nuclear Safety Council ("NSC") in July 2021.
In Berkeley's strong opinion, MITECO has rejected the Company's NSC II
application without following legally established procedure, including taking
into account the Company's 'Improvement Report' which supplemented the
Company's initial NSC II application.
Taking this into account, Berkeley submitted an administrative appeal against
MITECO's decision under Spanish law in December 2021. MITECO has now rejected
this administrative appeal.
The Company believes that MITECO has not only infringed regulations on
administrative procedures in Spain but also under protection afforded to
Berkeley under the Energy Charter Treaty ("ECT"), which would imply that the
decision on the rejection of the Company's NSC II application is not legal.
Accordingly, the Company submitted a written notification of an investment
dispute to the Prime Minister of Spain and MITECO in November 2022. Berkeley's
notification informed the Kingdom of Spain of the nature of the dispute and
the ECT breaches, and that it proposed to seek prompt negotiations for an
amicable solution pursuant to article 26.1 of the ECT.
The notification of an investment dispute submitted to the Spanish Government
is necessary to preserve the Company's rights to initiate international
arbitration should the dispute not be satisfactorily resolved. The Company,
however, has informed the Spanish Government that it is prepared to
collaborate and remains hopeful that the dispute can be resolved amicably
through prompt negotiations.
The dispute notice is an initial step to request amicable negotiations to
overturn the rejection of NSC II. To date, the Company has received no
correspondence from the Kingdom of Spain or MITECO in relation to the
investment dispute.
The Company will continue to update the market in relation to this matter as
required.
For further information please contact:
Robert
Behets
Franciso Bellón
Acting Managing Director Executive
Director
+61 8 9322
6322 +34
923 193 903
info@berkeleyenergia.com (mailto:info@berkeleyenergia.com)
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