Cleveland-Cliffs is expected to restart Northshore Mining in Minnesota next week, citing the resurgence of auto manufacturing in the US.
The company laid off most of its workforce at the iron ore mine and pellet plant in April as the Covid-19 pandemic spread and the three largest US automakers shut down.
“With our customers in the automotive sector back to more normal levels of activity, we have resumed production at all of our facilities that were temporarily idled, except the Northshore Mine, which will be back in operation next week,” said Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves in a conference call discussing the company’s Q2 results.
Cliffs announced in June it would restart its Tilden Mine in Michigan and resume construction on its hot-briquetted iron plant in Toledo, Ohio. Goncalves said in the conference call the Toledo plant should begin producing HBI before the end of this year. When the plant is complete, Northshore mining will supply it with 3.5 million tons of DRI pellets annually.