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Hibbing Taconite Stays Shuttered For Nearly 1 Year

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Jul 2, 2009 12:14 pm US/Central

Hibbing Taconite Stays Shuttered For Nearly 1 Year

(AP) Hibbing Taconite will stay shut down through April of next year, keeping its 700 employees out of work longer than initially planned.

Two production lines at the plant were idled in March, and it shut down entirely in May. It was originally to stay closed for 15 weeks, but owner Cleveland Cliffs now says it won't re-open until April 2010.

The announcement comes as global steel demand remains low and demand for taconite has dropped. All six taconite plants on northern Minnesota's Iron Range are either idled or have been in recent weeks.

Another Cleveland Cliffs operation, Northshore Mining Company, has been idle since April 6 but is still scheduled to restart on July 5.

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At least 440 union workers were furloughed since the end of May when Cliffs Natural Resources shut down the entire plant.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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