"With the closure of the sale of the Australian assets, we have now completed our multi-year transformation back to our roots as a supplier of high-grade iron units to the Great Lakes steel industry," Cleveland-Cliffs chairman and chief executive Lourenco Goncalves said in a statement. 

"I must again thank our Asia Pacific Iron Ore team for their crucial role and contribution to our successful turnaround over the last four years. This positive attitude and full engagement of our entire workforce will continue to allow us to be successful as we grow and evolve to supply high-quality metallics to electric arc furnaces.”

Cleveland-Cliffs announced the sale of the direct-shipped fines and lump ore operation in western Australia in June. The facility produced between 10 and 12 million metric tons annually in each of the last five years.  

With the sale, the Cleveland-Cliffs mines are now entirely in the United States, where it is also building a hot-briquetted iron plant.