The project, which carried a price tag of US$100 million, includes new production equipment and supporting infrastructure, along with concentrator building upgrades, a new scavenger building, new conveyor systems, a limestone tank and a steam-generating plant to support large-scale commercial production of DR-grade pellets.

It is expected to be completed on schedule and will be the culmination of almost 300,000 labour hours of work by a construction staff of 150. Construction first started in March 2018.

Cleveland-Cliffs said that, once the project is complete, the Northshore Mining facility will be the only US-based iron ore processing facility to produce low silica DR-grade pellets.

"The Northshore operation will immediately start to produce DR-grade pellet feedstock for Cliffs' hot-briquetted iron plant in Toledo, Ohio, a US$830 million investment that will be commissioned in mid-2020, as well as DR-grade pellets to be exported to a new clientele of DRI producers outside the US," the company said.