US Steel announced Thursday will idle its Keetac, Minnesota mine along with its processing facility in Keewatin, laying off 375 of its 423 employees in the process.
In a statement to media, the company said the decision follows "operational adjustments" announced in March. "After further study of current demand, we must make additional adjustments to our raw materials production and indefinitely idle our Keetac facility to respond to the sudden and dramatic decline in business conditions resulting from the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic," the company said.
The company did not say whether its other Minnesota mine, the Minntac mine in Iron Mountain, would be idled as well. In the past month, US Steel has idled two of its blast furnaces at its Gary Works plant in Indiana as demand for steel decreased due to the pandemic.