Junior mining firm Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX: AGO) revealed on Wednesday an upgrade on its reserves that further supported its target of ramping up productions to 12 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by the latter part of 2012.

The company said that as shown by latest study on its reserves, the numbers stood at 53.69Mt with a grading of 57.7 percent and coming from the previously established deposit of 36Mt, with about 2Mt mined.

Atlas said that it is positioning its northern Pilbara projects in Western Australia to increase its current production of 6Mtpa to 12Mtpa by the end of 2012 and the update provided by the latest study is pointing to the realisation of this goal, according to a company spokesman.

The company said that bulk of the upgraded production guidance would be sourced from its Turner River Hub project and ores mined on its Wodgina site would add up to outputs to be delivered by Atlas' other projects.

At present, Atlas said that its measured, indicated and inferred resource estimate has reached 204.71Mt as the company asserted that "the latest reserve increase will enable the company to push ahead with its plans to lift this production rate to as much as 12Mtpa."