Cliffs Natural Resources Says No Plans to Idle Minnesota Mines

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. CLF today stated that in July 2015, Cliffs' CEO and three other Cliffs' executives accepted the invitation by Essar Minnesota's CEO Madhu Vuppuluri to tour the Essar Minnesota construction site. As a result of the site visit and Cliffs' decades of experience in the business, Cliffs believes that Essar's claims of the project's state of completion are substantially overstated and, as a result, the projected timeline for pellet production in 2016 is inaccurate.  Cliffs had previously reported during its second-quarter 2015 earnings call that until Essar starts producing iron ore pellets at a sustainable rate, the Essar project in Minnesota is nothing more than a construction site.  This remains Cliffs' position. The original intention of the State of Minnesota's loans of $73 million ($67 million from the state and $6 million from IRRRB) to Essar was not to subsidize iron ore pellet overcapacity in the U.S., but to support the construction of a new steel mill in the Great Lakes region.  Media reports failed to state that the Essar Minnesota project, if it were to come online, would create iron ore pellet overcapacity in the U.S.  It is Cliffs' position See full press release