Maybe 2020....?????
Cliffs Natural Resources to spend $1bn in 2012
By: Matthew Hill
20th January 2012
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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Cliffs Natural Resources has budgeted $1-billion for capital expenditure in 2012, with more than half going into its Canadian iron-ore operations.
While the amount is 12% more than what the Cleveland-based company spent last year, it is in line with what Cliffs had originally planned to spend in 2011.
Of the amount, $700-million will go towards growth and $300-million will be sustaining capital, the company said.
The Bloom Lake iron-ore mine the firm acquired through its buyout of Consolidated Thompson in 2011 will get $470-million for its Phase 2 expansion aimed at doubling output to 16-million tons a year.
Cliffs also said preliminary estimates were it would need to spend nearly $1-billion to build a mine and concentrator at its chromite deposits in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario, while a ferrochrome smelter came with a $1.8-billion price tag.
Transport infrastructure to link its Ring of Fire resources would also cost around $600-million, though Cliffs said the government and other mining companies in the area would likely foot some of this bill.
Most of the spending on this project would take in 2014 and 2015, and the company said it would provide more details on completion of a feasibility study in the first half of the year.