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CLEVELAND, Jan. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) today announced Ronald Nielsen has joined the organization as general manager, global sustainability, effective Jan. 2011. In this newly created position, Mr. Nielsen leads Cliffs' sustainability program, with responsibilities for creating a long-term vision to drive transformational change and performance initiatives across the global organization.  He has program development and management responsibilities.  He reports to P. Kelly Tompkins, executive vice president, legal, government affairs and sustainability and chief legal officer.

Mr. Nielsen has 20 years of experience as an environmental and sustainability professional in business, government and civil sectors.  He is the founder and senior director for the International Centre for Business Innovation and Sustainability in Montreal, Canada where he leads a learning partnership that is developing leading practices to embed sustainability at the core of organizations. Presently, he also holds an academic role as Executive in Residence at Dalhousie University, Faculty of Management in Halifax, Nova Scotia and consultancy positions.  

For nearly a decade, Mr. Nielsen worked on sustainability with Alcan Inc./Rio Tinto Alcan of Montreal, Canada, serving as director, sustainability and strategic partnerships from 2004 to 2008.  He led the development and implementation of the company's global sustainability program from the inception to managing the governance and coordination for the global organization.  During his career, Mr. Nielsen has held public and private environmental engineering and policy positions within Canada.  He has been active in a range of forums and initiatives internationally, including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Tomorrow's Company, the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative.

"This newly created senior leadership position is indicative of the Company's ongoing and strong commitment to ensuring that Cliffs develops and maintains a 'best-in-class' culture of global sustainability," Mr. Tompkins remarked. "A demonstrated leader in integrating and embedding sustainability approaches in business and management systems, Ron also provides the passion and enthusiasm necessary to inspire, motivate and engage Cliffs' employees."

Mr. Nielsen received an Honours Bachelor of Applied Science, Socio-Economic Option, Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

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About Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is an international mining and natural resources company. A member of the S&P 500 Index, we are the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, a major supplier of direct-shipping lump and fines iron ore out of Australia and a significant producer of high and low volatile metallurgical coal. With core values of environmental and capital stewardship, our colleagues across the globe endeavor to provide all stakeholders operating and financial transparency as embodied in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Our Company is organized through three geographic business units:

The North American business unit is comprised of six iron ore mines owned or managed in Michigan, Minnesota and Canada and six coal mines located in West Virginia and Alabama. The Asia Pacific business unit is comprised of two iron ore mining complexes in Western Australia and a 45% economic interest in a coking and thermal coal mine in Queensland, Australia. The Latin American business unit includes a 30% interest in the Amapa Project, an iron ore project in the state of Amapa in Brazil.

Other projects under development include a biomass production plant in Michigan and Ring of Fire chromite properties in Ontario, Canada. Over recent years, Cliffs has been executing a strategy designed to achieve scale in the mining industry and focused on serving the world's largest and fastest growing steel markets.

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