Cliff's Natural Resources Issues Open Letter to Holders, Believes Casablanca's Plan Will Destroy Holder Value

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. CLF today issued the following letter to shareholders in connection with its upcoming 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: Dear Fellow Cliffs Shareholder, As our Annual Meeting approaches on July 29, we urge all Cliffs shareholders to protect the value of their investment by voting the WHITEproxy card today.  As Casablanca Capital continues to campaign for what we believe is a short-term, value-destructive agenda, shareholders need to know the truth about Casablanca's purported "plan" and lack of experience to lead a commodity company through the trough of the cycle. We believe that Casablanca has a one-dimensional, short-term plan to conduct a fire-sale of Cliffs' assets in an industry-wide cyclical downturn, which would be value destructivefor all Cliffs shareholders.  Unlike Casablanca, Cliffs' Board and new management team have a deep understanding of how commodity cycles work and how to position our assets to maximize value in a volatile pricing environment.  To that end, the Cliffs Board and new management team have been focused on key fundamentals, which Casablanca does not appear to understand and is ill-equipped to accomplish.  Specifically, we are lowering the cost-structure of the business, optimizing our operating profile, strengthening our balance sheet, and enhancing our liquidity.  By focusing on these priorities, Cliffs expects to emerge from the cyclical trough well positioned to capture value on the upside when its served markets recover. WE BELIEVE CASABLANCA'S STRATEGY IS ILLOGICAL AND WILL DESTROY LONG TERM VALUE, DEMONSTRATING ITS LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF COMMODITY MARKETS Casablanca's central theme is a "fire sale" of Cliffs' assets at the bottom of the commodity cycle.  Let there be no mistake: selling assets for cents on the dollar in the trough will destroy value for Cliffs shareholders.  This is not surprising given the lack of mining industry experience in Casablanca's slate of nominees.  Quick-fix financial engineering is not the answer.  Casablanca's plan will not only compromise current value but will also sacrifice long-term value creation that will be forever lost when these commodity markets recover.   We urge investors to focus on what really matters - the strategy that will generate the most value for all Cliffs shareholders.  Cliffs' Board and new management team have the experience to know that the better course is to maintain a strong balance sheet and responsibly optimize the assets in our portfolio instead of disposing of them at the bottom of the market.  A strong financial position and solid operational focus during the low point of a commodity cycle is how to best position Cliffs to ultimately realize the highest long-term value for these assets - whether assets are sold or further developed.  As experienced miners know, now is not the time to dump assets indiscriminately.  Under Gary Halverson's leadership, Cliffs has taken decisive action to halt development projects, idle loss-making mines at current iron ore and met coal prices, and optimize operations across our portfolio to weather the current downturn and preserve value potential as markets recover.  Cliffs owns valuable mining operations that produce premium quality products and offer diversity in supplier source that our customers value. Don't let Casablanca squander the opportunity to extract significant value from Cliffs' assets as markets recover.    We urge you not to allow Casablanca to take a majority of your Board and implement what we believe is an irrational planchampioned by inexperienced Board candidates.  Now is not the time to hand over the majority of Cliffs' Board to an unproven activist investor.  We believe that Casablanca's notion of "fixing" Cliffs is ill-conceived and short-sighted, driven by their self-serving agenda. CLIFFS' BOARD AND MANAGEMENT TEAM IS IMPLEMENTING THE RIGHT STRATEGY TO POSITION THE COMPANY TO GENERATE SHAREHOLDER VALUE IN THE RECOVERY Prudent and experienced leaders of mining companies understand how to protect their assets in today's environment.  As evidence of this experience, the Cliffs team has already: o Reduced capital expenditures by 65% since 2013; o Cut operating costs at every business segment through the rigorous implementation of operating discipline and improved processes to keep assets producing cash in the trough; o Halted development of the chromite project, idled our Wabush mine, announced our intention to temporarily idle our Pinnacle mine in late August 2014, and delayed Phase II expansion of Bloom Lake; and o Strengthened our balance sheet by amending our revolving credit facility to retain access to this important source of liquidity in today's volatile commodity price environment. VOTE THE WHITE PROXY CARD TODAY Your vote is extremely important, no matter how many or how few shares you own.  Remember: By voting "FORALL" of Cliffs' nominees, you are voting for a Board comprised of new independent directors clearly aligned with shareholder interests: o More than half of directors elected in 2013 or later. o At least two of our directors will have been nominated directly by our shareholders. o Other than our CEO Gary Halverson, all directors will be independent. o Each director has critical and relevant industry experience. o Board leadership will be provided by a different Chairman to be elected by the new Boardfollowing the completion of the Annual Meeting. For these reasons, and others, your Board encourages you to vote the enclosed WHITE proxy card "FOR ALL" of Cliffs' nine highly qualified and experienced nominees: Gary B. Halverson, Barry J. Eldridge, Mark E. Gaumond, Susan M. Green, Janice K. Henry, Stephen M. Johnson, James F. Kirsch, Richard K. Riederer and Timothy W. Sullivan. If you have any questions on cumulative voting or need assistance voting your shares, please contact D.F. King & Co., Inc., which is assisting us in connection with this year's Annual Meeting, at (800) 487- 4870.  On behalf of the Board, we thank you for your continued support of Cliffs. Sincerely, Cliffs' Board of Directors J.P. Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are acting as financial advisors to the Company and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Jones Day are acting as legal counsel.