Cleveland-Cliffs selling land to Mesabi Nugget

LTV taconite plant
The former LTV taconite facility is pictured from a distance, north of Hoyt Lakes.
MPR Photo/Bob Kelleher

Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc. said Monday it has closed on an agreement to sell the former LTV Steel site near Hoyt Lakes to Mesabi Nugget for $18 million, giving further momentum to construction of the world's first commercial iron nugget plant at the site.

As part of the sale, Mesabi Nugget Delaware LLC will get mineral and surface rights and assume certain environmental and reclamation liabilities for the site.

The Cliffs Erie LLC site was formerly known as LTV Steel Mining Co., an Iron Range taconite plant managed by Cleveland-Cliffs. LTV Steel Mining Co. closed in 2001 following the bankruptcy of LTV Steel Corp.

Iron nuggets produced by a new process at the Mesabi Nugget plant are expected to feed a Steel Dynamics mill in Butler, Ind.

The nuggets, containing about 97 percent iron, could also feed foundries. Steel Dynamics would own and operate the iron nugget plant.

Construction of the nugget plant is under way, with production scheduled for 2009. The $235 million project will provide 500 construction jobs, 50 permanent jobs and up to 100 spinoff jobs in northeastern Minnesota.

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