On Monday, Cleveland, Ohio-based mining company Cliffs Natural Resources announced that effective January 5, 2013, the company will idle two of the four production lines at Northshore Mining in Minnesota. Cliffs will also temporarily idle production at its Empire Mine in Michigan beginning in Q2 2013 in the form of an extended summer shutdown. These production curtailments will impact approximately 125 employees at Northshore and 500 employees at Empire mine, respectively.
Laurie Brlas, President Global Operations added, "Unfortunately the US Iron Ore production curtailments will affect many of our employees. However, at this time, we believe it is prudent and necessary to match our production volumes with market demand. We will remain operationally flexible to ramp up production volumes throughout the year if the demand increases."
At Bloom Lake Mine in Eastern Canada, Cliffs is suspending certain components of the Phase II expansion, including the completion of the concentrator and load out facility. As a result, construction related to these activities will cease and third-party contractors will be demobilized effective immediately. Pre-stripping activities to develop the working faces of Bloom Lake's ore body, supporting both Phase I and Phase II mine development will continue. Also, Cliffs will continue its environmental projects related to completing Bloom Lake's water and tailings management system and ore storage facility. Depending on market conditions, Cliffs expects to complete Phase II construction in early 2014.