VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – US iron-ore producer Cliffs Natural Resources has chosen Toledo, Ohio as the site to develop its first hot briquetted iron (HBI) production plant – a $700-million expansion to Cliffs’ production capabilities targeting the electric arc furnace steel market.

Cliffs advised that it is currently in discussions to bring on board several passive financial partners for the project.

The NYSE-listed company expects to break ground for the construction of the HBI production plant in early 2018, with commercial production to follow in mid-2020.

“We look forward to the strong margin and earnings potential this new product will generate for Cliffs shareholders,” president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves stated.

Cliffs will now work closely with the Ohio state to navigate through the environmental permitting process.

Cliffs considers the brownfield site at the Port of Toledo most suitable for development owing to its relative proximity to several future customers, as well as its logistics advantages, including affordable gas availability and access by multiple rail carriers.

Ohio Governor John Kasich pointed out that the state’s low-cost natural gas resources give job creators in the steel industry a competitive advantage, something Cliffs recognised when considering sites for this new technology.

The company has appointed Midrex Technologies to design, engineer and procure equipment for the new plant, which will have the nominal capacity to produce 1.6-million tons of HBI a year.

Goncalves earlier this month commended US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

"We must understand that staying in the accord is not equivalent to protecting the environment. As a nation, we could no longer accept the restrictions imposed on the United States while other countries are allowed to continue to pollute the world," Goncalves stated at the time.

He added that the American iron and steel industry is the most environmentally compliant among the major industrial nations, since it exclusively uses iron-ore pellets in the country's blast furnaces, while China relies on highly polluting sinter feed iron-ore fines from Australia and Brazil to over produce steel, flood the steel markets and weaken the US steel industry.

"We believe that being pro-environment, pro-industry and pro-business are not contradictory goals.”