Cleveland-Cliffs Plans to Search for Rare Earth Minerals

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00:00Cleveland Cliffs saying two of its sites, one in Michigan and another in Minnesota, show, quote,

00:04key indicators of rare earth mineralization. Who knew that these states were so rich?

00:10Is there rare earths in Minnesota?

00:12Well, I'm not surprised there would be, because if you look at rare earths, it's kind of a misnomer.

00:18They're pretty predominant in the earth's crust.

00:21The thing is, are they in big enough quantities to make it economically viable to extract profitably?

00:28And you've seen, you know, Ramico Resources announced that they found rare earths in their coal mines.

00:34We've seen various lithium producers finding that they found rare earths along with lithium.

00:40So the fact that Cleveland Cliffs, which has been in iron ore mining for probably almost a century,

00:48has found rare earths in its iron ore mines, it's not really that surprising.

00:52Okay. Now, can you use the same equipment to mine for rare earths?

00:56And, you know, how much of each individual rare earth do you need for it to be viable to produce something else?

01:01Well, it's a lot different process.

01:03Rare earths are kind of, you extract the rock, and then you have to use chemicals to target very specific rare earths to,

01:11you know, get them out of the rock.

01:14The other thing that's a little different is a lot of times where rare earth resides, also radioactive material resides.

01:23So you have much more environmental concerns than you would have with just iron ore mining.

01:32That is fascinating.

01:33Now, on the steel portion of things, they didn't quite meet metrics that analysts were putting out there,

01:38but they did, you know, do well in revenue and so on.

01:42They had the benefit of the steel tariffs, though.

01:44I mean, is everything going Cleveland Cliffs' way now?

01:46Right. I mean, they definitely, if you look at companies that are definitely would be a beneficiary of Section 232 tariffs

01:52and some of their tariffs, Cleveland Cliffs probably is at the top of the list.

01:56In fact, all steel makers are.

01:57They've been able to, you know, Cleveland Cliffs not only benefiting from the tariffs,

02:02it's also benefiting from the U.S. auto sector starting to reshore production back to the U.S.,

02:09and also we've seen other industries reshoring.

02:13In fact, the MOU that you mentioned in the intro to this segment was what the global steel manufacturer

02:21that wants to support its customers that are moving from elsewhere in the world to the U.S.,

02:27so they want a team with Cleveland Cliffs to supply steel in the U.S.