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Cleveland-Cliffs Selects Location for Iron Nugget Plant
08/17/2007 - Cleveland-Cliffs and joint-venture partner Kobe Steel will construct their 500,000 tons per year commercial-scale iron nugget production facility at Cliffs’ Empire Mine site in Palmer, Mich.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc and joint-venture partner Kobe Steel Ltd. will construct their commercial-scale iron nugget production facility at Cliffs’ Empire Mine site in Palmer, Mich. Production, projected at 500,000 tons per year, is expected to commence by early 2010.
The new facility will use Kobe’s patented ITmk3 ironmaking technology to produce high-purity iron nuggets containing more than 96% iron. The facility will operate under a 10-year alliance agreement.
Empire Mine currently produces iron ore pellets containing approximately 65% iron that are used as a feedstock for blast furnaces. With the Kobe process, the iron ore feed would instead be used to provide high-quality metallic nuggets for use as a raw material feedstock for the minimill sector, which produces steel in electric arc furnaces (EAFs).
The minimill segment of the steel industry continues to grow in the U.S. In 2006, minimills produced more than 55 million tons of steel, compared with the 45 million tons produced at blast-furnace-based integrated steel producers.
“This project furthers one of Cliffs’ key strategic objectives to sustain its leadership position in metallics-related processes and should open a very promising and growing new market for our company,” said Chairman, President and CEO Joseph A. Carrabba. “The selection of Empire as the location for the initial nugget plant involved an exhaustive process, with permitting considerations playing a major role. Additionally, locating the new facility at Empire will extend Cliffs’ operations there, as the mine’s current pellet equivalent ore reserves and operating plan would exhaust pelletizing capacity by 2010.”
Executive Vice President, Cliffs Metallics and Chief Technical Officer William Brake will oversee the project. “We are pleased to have Bill lead this effort,” noted Carrabba. “As Mittal Steel’s former EVP of Operations, he brings a wealth of relevant operating expertise to bear in this venture.”
The project is subject to obtaining environmental permits, execution of final agreements between Cliffs and Kobe, and final approval of each company’s board of directors. The next steps in the process involve facility design and workforce development.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is an international mining company, the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, and a major supplier of metallurgical coal to the global steelmaking industry. The company operates six iron ore mines in Michigan, Minnesota and Eastern Canada, and three coking coal mines in West Virginia and Alabama. Cliffs also owns 80% of Portman Limited, a large iron ore mining company in Australia, serving the Asian iron ore markets with direct-shipping fines and lump ore. In addition, the company has a 30% interest in the Amapá Project, a Brazilian iron ore project, and a 45% economic interest in the Sonoma Project, an Australian coking and thermal coal project.
