Renewafuel LLC, a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (NYSE:CLF), will build a next-generation biomass fuel production facility at the Telkite Technology Park in Marquette, Mich. Projected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2009, the plant will annually produce 150,000 tons of high-energy, low-emission biofuel cubes from a sustainable composite of collected wood and agricultural feedstocks, including wood byproducts, corn stalks, grasses and energy crops.

“We are happy to announce our first commercial-scale facility for Renewafuel,” said Dana Byrne, Cliffs’ vice president of public and environmental affairs. “Cooperation with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, Marquette County, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Telkite Technology Park and the Marquette Board of Light and Power helped make this happen, and we appreciate the efforts of their representatives.”

"We are excited to be a part of this tremendous economic development opportunity for both the Marquette area and Michigan's growing renewable energy industry,” said Don Koivisto, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture. “Renewafuel's investment demonstrates that Michigan is a state ripe with possibilities for alternative energy development."

Renewafuel’s biofuel cubes generate about the same amount of energy as coal from the Western United States; however, the cubes emit 90 percent less sulfur dioxide, 35 percent less particulate matter and 30 percent less acid gases than coal. The cubes are made from feedstocks that are considered biogenic carbon, and will not add to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Because of their size and density, the cubes can be used in most solid fuel systems with little or no modifications required.

At full production, Renewafuel will produce approximately 60,000 tons of biomass fuel cubes for the steam plant of Marquette Board of Light and Power, as well as replace a portion of coal used at Cliffs’ two nearby Michigan iron ore mines as process fuel for kilns used to harden iron ore pellets. Cliffs indicated the capital cost for the facility would be approximately $10 million.

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Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is an international mining company, the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America and a major supplier of metallurgical coal to the global steelmaking industry. The Company operates six iron ore mines in Michigan, Minnesota and Eastern Canada, and three coking coal mines in West Virginia and Alabama.