Item 7.01Regulation FD.
Cliffs’ Announcement to Partially Restart Northshore Operations
During its earnings conference call on Tuesday morning, April 24, 2023, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (“Cliffs”), parent of Northshore Mining Company (“Northshore”), the lessee/operator of the leased lands upon which Mesabi Trust is dependent for its royalties, held a conference call to discuss Cliffs’ first-quarter 2023 earnings. During the call, Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Cliffs, announced:
“Our higher levels of steel production have led to the partial restart of some operations at our iron ore mining and pelletizing swing facility at Northshore earlier this month. As you may recall, Northshore has been totally idle since the spring of last year. We will continue to treat that facility as our swing operation. And at this time, we still do not expect to operate North Shore in full any time this year.”
The Trustees have not been provided with any additional information regarding the anticipated volume of production, stockpiling or shipping of iron ore products at the Northshore operations in Babbitt and Silver Bay, Minnesota.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to Northshore operations in 2023 and other matters, which statements are intended to be made under the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Northshore operations could differ materially from current expectations due to inherent risks and uncertainties such as general adverse business and industry economic trends, uncertainties arising from war, terrorist events, recession, potential future impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and other global events, higher or lower customer demand for steel and iron ore, decisions by mine operators regarding curtailments or idling of production lines or entire plants, announcements and implementation of trade tariffs, environmental compliance uncertainties, difficulties in obtaining and renewing necessary operating permits, higher imports of steel and iron ore substitutes, processing difficulties, consolidation and restructuring in the domestic steel market, and other factors. Although the Mesabi Trustees believe that any such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Additional information concerning these and other risks and uncertainties is contained in the Trust’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 (filed April 24, 2023). Mesabi Trust undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
In accordance with general instruction B.2 to Form 8-K, the information in this Form 8-K shall not be deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section.