Cliffs Natural Resources held a groundbreaking ceremony at United Taconite to celebrate the future production of a superflux Mustang pellet for the Company’s largest customer, ArcelorMittal. Cliffs is investing in building new assets to support the customized iron ore pellet, including a storage facility, new silos, a limestone crusher and new conveyors.

The project will take approximately eight months and involve an estimated 200,000 hours of labor during construction. Cliffs is on track to deliver the Mustang pellets to ArcelorMittal starting next year.

Shown in picture (l-r): UTAC General Manager Santi Romani, Congressman Rick Nolan, Cliffs Chairman, President & CEO Lourenco Goncalves, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, USW Local 6860 President Brian Zarn, and EVP, USIO Terry Fedor.

Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves joined executives from six steel giants as a panelist for AISTech's Town Hall Forum as part of a weeklong conference sponsored by the Association for Iron and Steel Technology. During "Steel's Resolve: Overcoming the Excess," the executives explored the challenges — and discussed the opportunities — that lie ahead for the domestic steel industry. The global steel industry was challenged by excess capacity, excess production and excess imports in 2015. Despite a recovering construction market and a record year for auto sales, the headwinds buffeted steel producers.

Learn more about the conference and these issues at AIST’s website.  You can also watch the town hall forum online -- registration is required to view the video