Lourenco Goncalves, CEO, Cleveland Cliffs

MARQUETTE — Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CEO Lourenco Goncalves told local government and business leaders this morning that it was always his intention to reopen the Empire Mine, but now is not the time.

“I know you are all waiting for a big announcement about the Empire Mine,” Goncalves told the crowd during Cliffs’ annual breakfast today at the Holiday Inn in Marquette.

He said the timeline would depend on demand from steel makers.

“The steel mills that are not committing, two in Canada and one in the United States,” Goncalves said. “Without Empire they are going to die. But I am not going to commit $650 million dollars without a commitment that they will buy. We do not have enough pellets in the world, when I say that these (steel) companies don’t have options, it is Cliffs or Cliffs or they will go out of business.”

State Rep. Sara Cambensy, D- Marquette, who has led efforts to reopen the Empire, said she is optimistic about the reopening of the Empire.

“Even though we don’t have an announcement today, we know that we are waiting on pellet contracts, and for some steel companies to step up,” Cambensy said. “We are closer than we were one month ago or two months ago. We are looking at what an energy agreement would look like with U.P. (and) Wisconsin-owned companies, so we are close.”

Goncalves said Cliffs produced 22 million tons of pellets in 2018, 10 million tons are consumed by Arcelor Mittal and the remainder to be split among the steelmakers who still use blast furnaces.

Goncalves and Cliffs officials have been weighing options between reopening the Empire Mine or investing in a mining operation in Nashwauk, Minnesota, where the process to start extraction is more complicated due to mineral leases being held by another company.

Hundreds of jobs were lost when Cliffs made the decision to put the Empire Mine into an indefinite idle in 2016.

Aug. 3 of that year was the last day of pellet production at the Empire in Richmond Township. Some employees were transitioned to Cliffs’ other Marquette County operation, the Tilden Mine. Mine company officials said prior to Empire’s closure, about 1,170 employees were on the Cliffs’ payroll for operations in Michigan. More than 300 local jobs were believed to be lost when the Empire Mine was idled.