Cliffs' North American pellet sales were a record 10.4 million tons in 1997, down from 11.0 in 1996. 1998 sales are expected to be at least 11.5 million tons, a new record. Cliffs' strategy is to nurture its core business by continual focus on cost reduction and product quality improvement, build a significant business segment to produce reduced iron, and globally expand its iron ore business where the Company's core skills can be applied. Employment The Company and its associated mining ventures have approximately 6,000 employees in Cleveland, Ohio, Upper Michigan, northern Minnesota, and eastern Canada. Operations Subsidiaries of the Company manage six iron ore mines in North America.
Cliffs has equity interests in five of the mines.
The mine is owned 100 percent by LTV Steel Company. Mine located in Wabush, Labrador, Canada, and pellet plant in Sept. Iles, Quebec, Canada. Reduced Iron Development Cliffs has a strategic objective to build a significant reduced iron business and is constructing a joint venture plant in Trinidad and Tobago to produce high-quality iron briquettes. A Cliffs subsidiary will manage the project and be responsible for sales of the venture company, Cliffs and Associates Limited. Overall project engineering, procurement, and construction management is being supplied by Bechtel.