Cliffs Natural Resources reported in early January that it had completed shutdown of production at its Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Quebec, Canada, and that its planned exit from its eastern Canada iron ore operations continued to be executed on schedule as previously announced (E&MJ, December 2014, p. 6). The Bloom Lake mine has been transitioned to care and maintenance, and only a small number of employees are still on the payroll. The last shipment of Bloom Lake ore out of the Port of Sept-Iles was completed in early January.
Cliffs sought a buyer for Bloom Lake after announcing a $4.5 billion write-down of the property in late October 2014, with a self-imposed deadline for sale completion by year-end 2014. Failing in that objective, the company closed the mine.
Separately, Cliffs announced that it has completed the sale of its Logan County Coal assets in West Virginia to Coronado Coal II LLC, an affiliate of Coronado Coal LLC, for $174 million in cash and the assumption of certain liabilities.
