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Cliffs Natural Resources Closes Wabush Mines Acquisition
02/02/2010 - Cliffs Natural Resources completes acquisition of the interest held in the Wabush Mines joint venture by former partners U.S. Steel Canada and ArcelorMittal Dofasco.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. has completed the acquisition of its former partners’ interests in the Wabush Mines joint venture for approximately $88 million as originally negotiated by Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd.
Cliffs acquired the interest held by former partners U.S. Steel Canada (44.6%) and ArcelorMittal Dofasco (28.6%) through the exercise of its right of first refusal, as originally announced in October 2009.
With the closing of the acquisition, Cliffs now owns 100% of the operation that it has managed since 1965. The deal allows Cliffs to add more than 50 million tons of iron ore reserves and approximately four million tons of incremental iron ore pellet production capacity with access to the seaborne market.
The Wabush Mines operation includes the Scully Iron Ore Mine near Wabush, Newfoundland, Labrador as well as the pellet plant and port facilities at Point Noire, Que., and integrated rail facilities. The company has about 770 employees at Wabush Mines and the hourly workforce is represented by The United Steelworkers.
Cliffs Natural Resources, an international mining and natural resources company, is the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, a major supplier of direct-shipping lump and fines iron ore out of Australia and a significant producer of metallurgical coal.
The company is organized through three geographic business units in North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company’s North American business unit comprises six iron ore mines owned or managed in Michigan, Minnesota and Canada and two coking coal mining complexes located in West Virginia and Alabama. The Asia Pacific business unit comprises two iron ore mining complexes in Western Australia and a 45% economic interest in a coking and thermal coal mine in Queensland, Australia. The Latin American business unit includes a 30% interest in the Amapá Project, an iron ore project in the state of Amapá in Brazil.
Other projects under development include a biomass fuel production plant in Michigan and Ring of Fire chromite properties in Ontario, Canada. Over recent years, Cliffs has been executing a strategy designed to achieve scale in the mining industry and focused on serving the world's largest and fastest-growing steel markets.
