“The historical name Cleveland-Cliffs is synonymous with our strong heritage and is the perfect one for our next era of growth,” chairman and chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said in a statement. 

“As we did more than 60 years ago, when we adopted pelletizing as a smart business opportunity to utilize American iron ore and provide the domestic blast furnaces with customized pellets, Cleveland-Cliffs is once again reinventing itself as the supplier of high-quality iron units to the Great Lakes region. With our expansion into the production of hot-briquetted iron to supply the growing electric arc furnace steel industry, Cleveland-Cliffs is the best name to represent our strong present and our bright future,” he added. 

Cleveland-Cliffs became Cliffs Natural Resources in 2008, when the company announced plans to acquire coal miner Alpha Natural Resources. The deal was called off later that year amidst economic uncertainty. 

Cliffs said the name change takes effect immediately.  The company’s NYSE stock ticker symbol, CLF, will remain the same.