PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Despite wet weather conditions, the Nullagine iron-ore project, in the Pilbara, delivered at an above-expected run-rate, owner BC Iron reported on Thursday.
During the quarter ended March, the Nullagine project shipped 1.46-million tonnes of ore, representing a run-rate of 5.8-million tonnes a year. This was well above the targeted March quarter run-rate of 4.5-million tonnes a year, BC Iron said.
The project, which is held in joint venture (JV) with Fortescue Metals, operated at a free-on-board C1 cash cost of A$49/t, compared with the A$54/t cash cost reported in the previous corresponding period.
ASX-listed BC Iron has been working diligently to lower costs at the JV operation, recently terminating its mining contract with project house Watpac in an effort to save between A$2/t and A$3/t in costs.
The miner was hoping to achieve a C1 cash cost of between A$47/t and A$51/t at Nullagine during the December to June period, and further cost reductions were being targeted for 2016.