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BC Iron’s Nullagine mine in Australia will produce another 18 months thanks to an updated mineral resource at its Bonnie East deposit.
The Nullagine mine is a 50-50 joint venture between BC Iron (ASX:BCI) and Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) located in the Pilbara iron ore heartland of Australia.
BC Iron said today that its maiden Bonnie East ore reserve contains 7.7Mt graded 57.2% iron, bringing the mine’s total reserves to 42.4Mt . The added reserves extend the life of mine by 18 months.
“We are very pleased to report these updates for Bonnie East. Not only are we systematically replacing reserves, but we have increased the mine life at Nullagine which underpins our growth plans,” said BC Iron’s Managing Director, Mike Young.
The JV uses Fortescue’s infrastructure at Christmas Creek, 50km south of the mine, to rail its ore to Port Hedland for export. Mining started in November 2010 and the first ore was shipped in February 2011. The JV is currently operating at a production rate of 3Mtpa moving to 5Mtpa during the first half of this year.
