Despite rumors to the contrary, construction is still continuing at the Essar Steel Minnesota site near Nashwauk.

"Despite some recent inaccurate reports, construction has not halted at Essar Steel Minnesota," the company said in a statement.

"We want to clarify again that Essar has temporarily adjusted the level of construction activity at the site to re-align it with the timing of supply of equipment and other deliverables," the statement said. "This is not an uncommon occurrence on large or even small construction projects. Please know that there are over 100 skilled construction workers at the site working as hard as ever unloading steel and supplies, erecting steel, pouring concrete, moving earth and doing a host of other activities. Also, there are over 100 Essar employees based in Minnesota that spend time every day tirelessly working to bring this historic project to life. We expect to be ramping up construction again soon."

In August, company officials said that $1.1 billion in project financing has been secured for the initial capacity of 4.1 million tons of pellets per year to be produced on the site. More than $600 million has been spent on the project so far.

The company projects completion and start-up of the pellet production plant in June 2013.