Cleveland-Cliffs Tilden Mine Certified Compliant to ISO 14001

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CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (NYSE:CLF), which will be renamed Cliffs Natural Resources in the coming months, announced today that its Tilden Mine near Ishpeming, Mich., has been certified compliant to the ISO 14001 standard for Environmental Management Systems.

Tilden was awarded the certification following a rigorous third party review of its operations, personnel and programs. The operation's active management involvement in environmental matters, integration of prevention of pollution into business planning, and commitment to continual improvement earned a recommendation for certification and zero non-conformances. As part of the certification process, Tilden will maintain documented procedures and conduct ongoing training for its employees and contractors.

Dana W. Byrne, Cleveland-Cliffs' vice president-public and environmental affairs, said, "Environmental stewardship is a Cliffs core value and achieving the ISO 14001 certification exemplifies our commitment to conduct business with state-of-the-art environmental practices. The framework that ISO 14001 certification provides will help protect and enhance the Company's assets, which is timely, considering our recently announced $500 million investment to increase production at the Tilden and Empire Mines."

The Tilden Mine is the second of Cliffs' operations to achieve ISO 14001 certification, as its Northshore mining and power generation operations, located in Silver Bay and Babbitt, Minn., achieved certification in 2004. The Company expects that all of its domestic operations will achieve ISO 14001 certification in the near future.

ABOUT CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is an international mining company, the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America and a major supplier of metallurgical coal to the global steelmaking industry. The Company operates six iron ore mines in Michigan, Minnesota and Eastern Canada, and three coking coal mines in West Virginia and Alabama. Cleveland-Cliffs also owns 85% of Portman Limited, a large iron ore mining company in Australia, serving the Asian iron ore markets with direct-shipping fines and lump ore. In addition, the Company has a 30% interest in the Amapa Project, a Brazilian iron ore project, and a 45% economic interest in the Sonoma Project, an Australian coking and thermal coal project.

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This news release contains predictive statements that are intended to be made as "forward-looking" within the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the Company believes that its forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are subject to risk and uncertainties.

Actual results may differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons, including: failure to maintain environmental management systems and certifications; changes in the sales mix; the impact of other price-adjustment factors on the Company's North American sales contracts; changes in demand for iron ore pellets by North American integrated steel producers, or changes in Asian iron ore demand due to changes in steel utilization rates, operational factors, electric furnace production or imports into the United States and Canada of semi-finished steel or pig iron; the impact of consolidation and rationalization in the steel industry; availability of capital equipment and component parts; availability of float capacity on the Great Lakes; changes in the financial condition of the Company's partners and/or customers; rejection of major contracts and/or venture agreements by customers and/or participants under provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code or similar statutes in other countries; failure of independent contractors to perform; events or circumstances that could impair or adversely impact the viability of a mine and the carrying value of associated assets; inability to achieve expected production levels; reductions in current resource estimates; failure to receive or maintain required environmental permits; the impact of mine closure obligations; problems with productivity, labor disputes, weather conditions, fluctuations in ore grade, tons mined, changes in cost factors including energy costs, transportation and employee benefit costs; the ability to identify, acquire and integrate strategic acquisition candidates; and the effect of these various risks on the Company's future cash flows, debt levels, liquidity and financial position.

Reference is also made to the detailed explanation of the many factors and risks that may cause such predictive statements to turn out differently, set forth in the Company's Annual Report and Reports on Form 10-K and previous news releases filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are publicly available on Cleveland-Cliffs' website. The information contained in this document speaks as of the date of this news release and may be superseded by subsequent events.

News releases and other information on the Company are available on the Internet at:

    http://www.cleveland-cliffs.com or

    www.cleveland-cliffs.com/Investors/Pages/default.aspx?b=1041&1=1

    Source: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc

Released September 16, 2008