Sierra Leone woos miners to clean energy with $11 billion plan
Most mining firms rely on their own diesel supplies to extract iron ore, diamonds, rutile and bauxite in the resource-rich country.
Mesabi Metallics said it has won a major victory in its antitrust suit against US steel giant Cleveland-Cliffs.
According to a statement issued by the company on Thursday, a federal court in Delaware confirmed there is sufficient evidence that Cleveland-Cliffs caused Mesabi antitrust injury.
In the antitrust suit, Mesabi alleges that Cleveland-Cliffs unlawfully impeded Mesabi from building its iron ore mine and pelletizing plant in Minnesota.
Mesabi Metallics is part of Essar Group, with $9.5 billion in assets and operations in the US, UK and India. The company is seeking t $1.9 billion in damages from Cleveland Cliffs.
In its opinion published Thursday, the court ruled that “there is sufficient evidence that permits a reasonable juror to conclude that Cliffs’ conduct was anticompetitive.”
“Acquiring key mining property and entering into a long-term exclusive supply agreement with one of the largest customers in the region, coupled with pressuring critical contractors working on Mesabi’s project to terminate their relationships with Mesabi, could substantially foreclose Mesabi from the market and exclude competition,” it stated.
The case will now proceed to trial.
“Mesabi is pleased that the court’s ruling supports our position that Cliffs impeded our ability to complete the project,” Mesabi Metallics CEO Joe Broking said in the statement.
“Mesabi hopes the decision, coupled with Essar’s and Mesabi’s continued investment in the project, helps address the past disappointment caused to our partners and stakeholders by the previous delays to the project.”
The company said the 7-million-ton-per-year pelletization project located on over 16,000 acres of land in Nashwauk is being constructed and is on track to commence operations in the first quarter of 2026.
