fmg selling their stake in the jv...?, page-8

The only reason the Fortescue assets are under pressure is because they have been primarily debt funded. The underlying cash cost is similar to what BC Iron has at the Nullagine JV (around 50 bucks a tonne, but this isn't the high quality low phosphate stuff that BC Iron happens to be shipping).

The debt repayment requirements increase the cash cost to around 100ish to make Fortescue able to repay the operating costs as well as pay down interest/principle within their debt covenants. I'm not sure how anyone thinks that FMG selling down their 50% stake makes sense.. FMG at this point are still expanding their operations at a pretty high capital intensity, it doesn't make sense to either sell down their current capacity in the JV, or buy it from BC Iron at the prices BC Iron would be willing to sell it for.