Cleveland-Cliffs stock soars after company touts plans to ‘re-focus’ its rare earth mining efforts
Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) shares rose as much as 24% early Monday morning after the company said it would redouble efforts on mining rare earth minerals, which has become one of the hottest commodity trades on Wall Street this year.
“Beyond steel production, the renewed importance of rare earths has led us to refocus on this potential opportunity in our mineral assets,” said CEO Lourenco Goncalves. said in the company’s earnings release.
“We have looked at all of our ore bodies and tailings ponds, and two fields in particular, one in Michigan and the other in Minnesota, show the most potential. Geological studies at these two fields show key indicators of rare earth mineralization. If successful, it will align Cleveland-Cliffs with the broader national strategy for critical materials independence, similar to what we have achieved with steel.”
Cleveland Cliffs, Ohio-based, which has long dominated the U.S. steel industry, operates a completely vertically integrated iron and steel supply chain, mining iron ore from the ground, refining it and converting it into steel, and then selling that steel and a collection of downstream products to other customers.
The company on Monday reported revenue of $4.7 billion in the third quarter from steel shipments of 4 million net tons. Adjusted net losses totaled $0.45 for the quarter.
Cleveland-Cliffs’ comments come as rare earths, critical to sectors such as weapons manufacturing, batteries and EV development, have become the focus of an escalation of tit-for-tat trade maneuvers between Washington and Beijing.
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
After China’s statement a comprehensive set of new export controls President Trump, who restricted shipments of products containing even trace amounts of a group of rare metals, threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Chinese goods before retracting the threat.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US and China hold talks in Malaysia later this week. But Washington has a long way to go to match Beijing’s dominance of rare earth supplies.
China currently controls 70% of the world’s mining capacity, 90% of separation capacity, and 93% of oxide and magnate production for rare earth minerals and metals.
As Cleveland-Cliffs’ Goncalves says: “American manufacturing should not rely on China or any foreign country for essential minerals, and Cliffs aims to be part of the solution.”
Read more: Latest news and updates on Trump’s tariffs
As part of the administration’s efforts to gain ground in China, the White House and the Department of Defense invested in a number of mining companies during the year; these include MP Materials (MP), Trilogy Metals (TMQ), and Lithium Americas (LAC), which operates the only operating rare earth mine in the United States.
