Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Ranked Ninth on Bloomberg Businessweek's 50 Top Performers List

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CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) announced today it has been listed ninth in Bloomberg Businessweek's inaugural "50 Top Performers" list, which ranks U.S. corporations with the highest total returns for shareholders in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index over the past five years. According to the magazine, Cliffs' calculated return rate of 306.9% places it near the top of a list of companies that have thrived by "honing competitive edges through good times and bad."

Joseph A. Carrabba, Cliffs' chairman, president and chief executive officer, said; "Being ranked as one of the 50 top-performing companies is a testament to the dedication of our employees, who have successfully repositioned the Company over the last five years, including a laudable response to 2009's imposing economic challenges. Cliffs consistently works to create value through every stage of the business cycle, and our view regarding the long-term outlook for steelmaking raw materials remains positive."

The stocks in the list, which appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek's June 21-28 issue, returned an aggregate 222.3% return from March 31, 2005, to March 31, 2010, versus the S&P 500 index average return of 10% during the same period.

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ABOUT CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is an international mining and natural resources company. A member of the S&P 500 Index, we are the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, a major supplier of direct-shipping lump and fines iron ore out of Australia and a significant producer of metallurgical coal. With core values of environmental and capital stewardship, our colleagues across the globe endeavor to provide all stakeholders operating and financial transparency as embodied in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Our Company is organized through three geographic business units:

The North American business unit is comprised of six iron ore mines owned or managed in Michigan, Minnesota and Canada and two coking coal mining complexes located in West Virginia and Alabama. The Asia Pacific business unit is comprised of two iron ore mining complexes in Western Australia and a 45% economic interest in a coking and thermal coal mine in Queensland, Australia. The Latin America business unit includes a 30% interest in the Amapa Project, an iron ore project in the state of Amapa in Brazil.

Other projects under development include a biomass production plant in Michigan and Ring of Fire chromite properties in Ontario, Canada. Over recent years, Cliffs has been executing a strategy designed to achieve scale in the mining industry and focused on serving the world's largest and fastest growing steel markets.

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

http://www.cliffsnaturalresources.com or

www.cliffsnaturalresources.com/Investors/Pages/default.aspx?b=1041&1=1.

Follow Cliffs on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/CliffsIR. 


    Source: Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.

Released June 28, 2010