Cliffs acquired controlling interest in Renewafuel in late 2007 and announced the construction of a 150,000-ton-per-annum facility in Marquette, Michigan.
The facility will produce low-emission biofuel cubes made from renewable and consistently available components such as corn stalks, switch grass, grains, soybean and oat hulls, wood and wood byproducts.
The biofuel will be used in Cliffs’s iron ore mining and processing operations as well as in other industries in Minnesota, Michigan and other Midwest states. Production is scheduled to begin in 2009.
Joseph Carrabba, Cliffs’s chairman and CEO, said: Renewafuel successfully transitions from the conceptual stage to an integral element of Cliffs’s expanding alternative energy business, establishing a formal management team to guide the operation and maximize its potential was a natural next step. Under Bill’s leadership, we will further our objective of enhancing efficiencies in an environmentally responsible manner.
