BC Iron has extended the life of its flagship mine as it eyes...

BC Iron has extended the life of its flagship mine as it eyes further potential tie-ups with joint venture partner Fortescue Metals Group.

The miner, which operates the Nullagine project in a joint venture with Fortescue, revealed this week a resource upgrade at the West Australian project, saying the results had extended the mine's life by 18 months.

BC Iron said Nullagine's ore reserve now stood at 42.4 million tonnes, including a maiden assessment of the Bonnie East deposit at 7.7 million tonnes.

Managing director Mike Young said the miner's goal when it started was to fast-track first production, get cashflows going and then focus on growth.

"The feedback from analysts and shareholders was that the reason they like us is because we are an iron ore company and they like the simplicity," he said.

"We are looking at other geographies, but our focus is to expand Nullagine and any other deals we can do with Fortescue because we have a good relationship and we think the model we have works really well."
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