Goncalves has previously described the royalties as "absurdly high." The dispute with Mesabi Trust, which receives royalties for ore it owns near Babbitt, does not appear to be solved. At the time, the company had enough ore capacity at its other properties, and it was enmeshed in a long-running and bitter dispute over royalty payments connected to Northshore. The company owns three of the Iron Range's six taconite operations in full and has an 85% stake in a fourth.Ĭliffs idled Northshore in May 2022. It's good to see steam coming out of stacks."Ĭleveland-based Cleveland-Cliffs is Minnesota's largest iron ore miner and one of the nation's biggest steelmakers. "The fact that they are mining - that is good news for our community, for our schools and for everybody. "Everybody who wanted to come back came back," LeBlanc added. They had found new jobs, including at other taconite plants or railroads, LeBlanc said. Wade LeBlanc, Silver Bay's mayor, said the same, and like Hauschild said some workers did not return. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, said Tuesday he was told that Cliffs gave offers to all Northshore employees to return to work. "At this time, we still do not expect to operate Northshore in full any time this year," Goncalves said. However, Goncalves told stock analysts that Northshore will continue to serve as "our swing operation." That means Northshore will be used "as needed," Cliffs said in an email. Higher levels of steel production led to a "partial restart" of Northshore's operations earlier in April, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in a quarterly earnings conference call Tuesday. Northshore mines taconite in Babbitt and ships it by rail to Silver Bay, where it is fashioned into marble-sized balls of more than 60% iron. However, Cleveland-Cliffs, Northshore's owner, does not expect to run the iron ore operation at full capacity in 2023.Ĭleveland-Cliffs declined to disclose how many of Northshore's 450 employees were back at work. Northshore Mining has partly reopened this month after being shuttered for nearly a year.
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