Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., Cleveland, announces that has started up new production equipment, including supporting infrastructure, to support large-scale commercial production of DR-grade iron pellets at its Northshore Mining facility in Babbitt, Minnesota. The plant will be completed on schedule and within a total investment budget of $100 million. Cleveland-Cliffs invested in upgrading the concentrator building, a new scavenger building, new conveyor systems, a limestone tank, and a steam-generating plant to support large-scale commercial production of DR-grade pellets. With the conclusion of the project, Northshore Mining will be the only U.S.-based iron ore processing facility to produce low-silica DR-grade pellets.
The company also announces that it has invested $830 million in a hot briquetted iron plant in Toledo, Ohio. The Northshore operation will immediately start to produce DR-grade pellet feedstock for this HBI plant, which will be commissioned in mid-2020, as well as DR-grade pellets to be exported to a new clientele of DRI producers outside the United States.
Founded in 1847, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is the largest and oldest independent iron ore mining company in the United States. The company is a major supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel industry from its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota. By 2020, Cliffs expects to be the sole producer of hot briquetted iron in the Great Lakes region with the development of its first production plant in Toledo.
