The Cleveland-Cliffs CEO says an iron ore mine in northern Minnesota will close in a few years if it doesn’t secure mineral rights to a nearby project that hasn’t been completed.
Hibbing Taconite, owned by Cleveland-Cliffs, is expected to run out of iron ore around 2025. Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Thursday that his company needs the rights to the Mesabi Metallics project to maintain operation. , according to the Star Tribune. informed.
The state of Minnesota terminated Mesabi Metallics’ mineral rights after the company missed a $200 million down payment deadline to complete the taconite plant near Nashwauk. The state plans to reassign the leases.
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Goncalves said if Cleveland-Cliffs wins the leases, the Hibbing mine will run for about 27 years.
“I think we’re getting close,” Goncalves said at a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce event in Minneapolis. “I think we are one Supreme Court decision away.”
A Minnesota iron ore mine is struggling to receive the necessary permits that would allow it to continue operating after 2025.
(FoxNews)
Mesabi Metallics has asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to review a state Court of Appeals ruling that favored termination of the company’s leases. If the Supreme Court declines to take the case, the state Department of Natural Resources would reassign the leases. US Steel has also shown interest.
The DNR said it has not decided how it will release the ore from Nashwauk.
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In an interview with reporters after his speech, Goncalves said that “if the Minnesota Supreme Court doesn’t take the case, we expect that to happen, I think the next thing will be to sit down with the DNR to finalize a deal… If they Bid, I’m not even going to bid. So whoever wins, I don’t give a fuck.”
He said that any winning bidder will simply tie up the land and its minerals and do nothing with them.
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Hibbing Taconite, an economic anchor in Minnesota’s Iron Range, employs 750 people.
