Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Names James R. Michaud Vice President, Human Resources

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) today announced the appointment of James R. Michaud to the position of Vice President, Human Resources. In this position, Mr. Michaud will provide leadership in the development of human resources-related strategic and tactical initiatives that support the company's continued growth. Mr. Michaud will officially join Cliffs September 7, 2010, reporting to Laurie Brlas, executive vice president--finance and administration and chief financial officer.

Specifically, Mr. Michaud will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of Cliffs' leadership development, talent management, recruitment, compensation, employee benefits, training, and employee relations programs.

Since February 2009, Mr. Michaud has worked as a Partner at Laurus Strategies, partnering with a wide variety of clients to build world-class HR organizations to achieve superior business results. He previously served as vice president human resources/labor relations - Americas for ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), where he was responsible for the rapid integration of its facilities throughout the Americas. He has also held several executive human resources and labor relations positions at Alcoa Inc (NYSE: AA)

"As Cliffs continues to execute its strategy of mineral and geographical diversification, accessing the world's fastest growing steel markets, Jim's extensive materials background and exceptional human resources and team-building abilities will be instrumental components of our future success," Ms. Brlas commented. "We look forward to his ongoing contributions as we build upon our momentum in this industry."

Mr. Michaud received his B.A. degree from James Madison College of Michigan State University. He is a past member of the Hewitt Senior Client Advisory Board and the Washington Business Group on Health, and currently sits on the Advisory Board for Michigan State University's School of Human Resources and Labor Relations.

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About Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is an international mining and natural resources company. A member of the S&P 500 Index, we are 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 high and low volatile metallurgical coal. With core values of environmental and capital stewardship, our colleagues across the globe endeavor to provide all stakeholders operating and financial transparency as embodied in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Our Company is organized through three geographic business units:

The North American business unit is comprised of six iron ore mines owned or managed in Michigan, Minnesota and Canada and six coal mines located in West Virginia and Alabama. The Asia Pacific business unit is comprised of 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 Amapa Project, an iron ore project in the state of Amapa in Brazil.

Other projects under development include a biomass 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.

News releases and other information on the Company are available on the Internet at:

http://www.cliffsnaturalresources.com or

www.cliffsnaturalresources.com/Investors/Pages/default.aspx?b=1041&1=1

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This news release contains predictive statements that are intended to be made as "forward-looking" within the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the Company believes that its forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risk and uncertainties.

Actual results may differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons, including: the ability to reach agreement with our iron ore customers regarding modifications to sales contract pricing escalation provisions to reflect the migration from annual international benchmark prices to a quarterly or spot-based pricing mechanism in a timely manner; the ability to successfully integrated INR Energy, LLC into our operations; changes in the sales volumes or mix; the impact of any increases or decreases in international prices for iron ore and/or metallurgical coal resulting from the global economic crisis; the impact of price-adjustment factors on our sales contracts; changes in demand for iron ore pellets by North American integrated steel producers, or changes in Asian iron ore demand due to changes in steel utilization rates, operational factors, electric furnace production or imports into the United States and Canada of semi-finished steel or pig iron; the impact of consolidation and rationalization in the steel industry; availability of capital equipment and component parts; availability of float capacity; ability to maintain adequate liquidity and our ability to access capital markets; changes in the financial condition of our partners and/or customers; rejection of major contracts and/or venture agreements by customers and/or participants under provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code or similar statutes in other countries; events or circumstances that could impair or adversely impact the viability of a mine and the carrying value of associated assets; inability to achieve expected production levels; reductions in current resource estimates; impacts of increasing governmental regulation including failure to receive or maintain required environmental permits; problems with productivity, third party contractors, labor disputes, weather conditions, fluctuations in ore grade, tons mined, changes in cost factors including energy costs, transportation, mine closure obligations and employee benefit costs; the ability to identify, acquire and integrate strategic acquisition candidates; risks associated with operations in multiple countries and the effect of these various risks on our future cash flows, debt levels, liquidity and financial position.

Reference is also made to the detailed explanation of the many factors and risks that may cause such predictive statements to turn out differently, set forth in the Company's Annual Report and Reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and previous news releases filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are publicly available on Cliffs Natural Resources' website. The information contained in this document speaks as of the date of this news release and may be superseded by subsequent events.


    Source: Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.