PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore producer BC Iron returned to a yearly run-rate of six-million tonnes a year during the three months to December, following a troubled September quarter, with the miner on Friday also downgrading its cost expectations for the full year.
The Nullagine joint venture (JV), in Western Australia, shipped 1.38-million tonnes of Bonnie Fines during the quarter, with BC’s share amounting to 1.2-million.
This was up from the 950 000 t shipped in the September quarter, with that quarter affected by a number of mining, crushing and screening initiatives to address a higher clay content in the ore.
BC Iron in the September quarter downwardly revised the company’s full-year sales targets from the original 5.8-million to 6.2-million tonnes, to between 5.2-million and 5.6-million tonnes.
Meanwhile, BC Iron told shareholders on Friday that during the quarter ended December, the miner had retained its strong focus on costs savings, and had identified a C1 cash cost saving of between A$2/t and A$3/t of ore.
As a result, the C1 cash cost for the remainder of the 2015 financial year was expected to be between A$47/t and A$51/t, down from the previous expectation of between A$49/t and A$53/t. All-in costs for the remainder of the financial year were forecast at between A$54/t and A$61/t.
“It is pleasing to see the Nullagine JV return to the six-million tonne a year run-rate during November, and achieve sales of 1.38-million tonnes for the quarter, at reduced costs,” said MD Morgan Ball.
“We will continue to focus on operational performance, productivity and costs, and with approximately A$70-million in net cash, we are well placed to manage the business through the iron-ore cycle,” Ball added.