Nullagine

The Nullagine (BC Iron JV FMG) open cut iron ore mine in the Pilbara, 140 kilometres north of Newman in Western Australia, is part of a mining licence covering 1,500 square kilometres. It is jointly owned by BC Iron Limited and Fortesque Metals Group who completed construction of the venture in 2010, with the first 20,000 tonnes of ore from the mine shipped out of Port Hedland to customers in China early in 2011.

BC Iron Increased its Share of Nullagine Joint Venture in 2012
Late in 2012, BC Iron Limited increased its share of the joint venture resulting in them now holding 75 percent of the operation. This took official effect on January 1, 2013. Fortesque also agreed to increase the infrastructure capacity so that an annual production level of six million tonnes could be handled of which 4.5 million tonnes would be attributable to BC Iron.

The Nullagine Mine is the Core Focus of BC Iron
The Nullagine open cut mine is the core focus of BC Iron Limited that has an iron ore Probable Reserve of 41 million tonnes grading at 57.1 percent iron. The total mineral Resource at Nullagine is 108.7 million tonnes with a grading of 54.1 percent iron. The ore body occurs at the surface and therefore it can be recovered with a simple mining and crushing undertaking with low stripping ratios.

Nullagine Iron Ore Railed to Port Hedland for Export
Ore from the Nullagine (BC Iron JV FMG) mine makes use of the crushing and rail-loading facility owned by Fortescue at their Christmas Creek Mine, 50 kilometres south of the Nullagine open cut. The ore is loaded onto railway wagons at Christmas Creek and taken to Port Hedland.

BC Iron Becomes the First Junior Miner to Obtain Cooperation With the big Players
In January 2011 BC Iron Limited became the first junior mining company in Australia to be given access to, and make use of, a third party railway line owned by one of the big players in the industry. This achievement was quickly followed up with it becoming only the third company to make use of Fortesque Metals iron exporting facility at their Herb Elliot Port, at Port Hedland. Nullagine's first 'FOOS,' (first ore on ship) took place at the port in February 2011. These achievements give hope to the smaller mining companies that third party access to railway and port facilities can become a reality.

Nullagine Achievements
The financial year 2011/12 was a period of considerable consolidation at the Nullagine Mine for the following reasons:
- A total of 3.5 million tonnes of Nullagine ore had been exported out of Port Hedland to June 30, 2012
- An iron ore production rate of of five million tonnes of ore a year had been obtained by May 2012
- One million tonnes of iron ore was exported by December 31 2011
- Three million tonnes of iron ore had been produced by December
31 2011.

The Nullagine Joint Venture mined and exported record amounts of iron ore in all four quarters of 2012 including the largest cap size vessel of around 224,000 tonnes in June 2012.
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