Agencies Deny Cliffs’ Remediation Plan for Pinnacle Mine
06/27/2011 - Regulatory agencies have denied a remediation plan submitted by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. to address detected levels of carbon monoxide at the company's Pinnacle Mine in West Virginia.
Regulatory agencies have denied a remediation plan submitted by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. that had been developed to address detected levels of carbon monoxide at the company's Pinnacle Mine in West Virginia.
According to the company, the plan would have allowed it to resume underground mining operations at its Pinnacle Mine, which had been stopped in late May due to the detected levels of carbon monoxide.
As the company evaluates various options, including an appeal of the regulatory agencies' decision to deny its remediation plan, Cliffs indicated that unless other options prove effective it does not expect underground operations to resume at Pinnacle Mine prior to the fourth quarter. Prior to this development, Cliffs had planned to produce over one million tons of low-volatile metallurgical coal from Pinnacle Mine in the last six months of 2011.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., an international mining and natural resources company, is a major global iron ore producer and a significant producer of high- and low-volatile metallurgical coal. Cliffs' strategy is to continually achieve greater scale and diversification in the mining industry through a focus on serving the world's largest and fastest-growing steel markets.
The company is organized through a global commercial group responsible for sales and delivery of Cliffs’ products and a global operations group responsible for the production of the minerals the company markets. Cliffs operates iron ore and coal mines in North America and two iron ore mining complexes in Western Australia. The company also has a 45% economic interest in a coking and thermal coal mine in Queensland, Australia. In addition, Cliffs has a major chromite project, in the pre-feasibility stage of development, located in Ontario, Canada.
