Cleveland, Ohio-based
Cliffs Natural Resources has announced that it expects its full year 2014 capital expenditures to be in the range of $375-425 million, a greater than 50 percent year-on-year reduction from its full year 2013 capital spending of $862 million. This decrease is driven by a significant reduction in the company's expansion and tailings and water management capital spending at its Bloom Lake Mine in Québec.
Cliffs also announced that it will idle production at its Wabush Mine in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Cliffs stated that, with costs unsustainably high, including fourth quarter 2013 cash costs of $143/mt, it is not economically viable to continue running this operation.
As previously disclosed, Cliffs idled Wabush Mine's Pointe Noire
iron ore pellet plant in June 2013. Approximately 500 employees at both the Wabush Scully Mine and the Pointe Noire rail and port operation in Québec will be impacted by these actions.