Struggling miner BC Iron has announced a temporary halt to production at the Nullagine Joint Venture (NJV).
Citing the continued decline of the price of iron ore, BC announced to the market last week that it was not in the best interests of the shareholders to for NJV to continue in its current form.
The tough decision will see 25 per cent FMG joint venture suspended progressively over December and January, with exports completed during January.
It has been suggested that BC will sell its unprocessed 11 million wet metric tonne stockpile to FMG under a mine gate sale arrangement, albeit at a reduced rate.
Managing director Morgan Ball said BC was a “price taker” and that despite successful cost reductions by staff and contractors the market had forced this unfortunate decision.
“I would like to thank our joint venture partner, Fortescue, for their strong contribution to the success of the NJV over the last five years of operations and also the West Australian Government for its willingness to work with and support the resources industry,” he said.
“Most importantly, I thank all of our committed employees and contractors who have worked so hard to build the NJV to a 6Mtpa operation and worked even harder again during the last 18 months to maintain BC Iron’s competitive position in a very challenging market.”