Australian iron ore company BC Iron Limited (BC Iron) announced on July 6 that its 50 percent-owned Nullagine Iron Ore Joint Venture in Pilbara, Western Australia with Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) has received the US$20 million final instalment of funding under the US$50 million funding facility with Henghou Industries (Hong Kong) Limited.
This third and final instalment follows the announcements on December 17, 2009 and February 3, 2010 which confirmed receipt of the first two tranches of funding amounting to US$30 million as part of an offtake agreement. These funds are being applied to project development activities as the project progresses towards production in the second half of 2010.
BC Iron will commence mining at Nullagine later this year, and remains on track for its stated targets of shipping the first ore in December 2010 and reaching an annual production rate of three million metric tons and the shipment of one million metric tons by June 30, 2011.