CLEVELAND (Business Wire) -- Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a capital project at its Koolyanobbing Complex in Western Australia. The project, which requires approximately $320 million Australian dollars of incremental capital investment, is expected to allow the Koolyanobbing Complex to produce approximately 11 million tonnes annually.

Cliffs indicated that capital for this project will be spent over the next two years, with the bulk of the spending occurring in 2011. The improvements are expected to consist of enhancements to the existing rail infrastructure, an increase in rolling stock, and upgrades to various other existing operational constraints. Cliffs anticipates these improvements to be fully implemented in the second half of 2012.

Cliffs stated that recently acquired mineral tenements located near its existing Asia Pacific Iron Ore deposits will enable the Company to continue potentially increasing the current resource base.

Duncan Price, Cliffs' senior vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific Iron Ore, commented, “We are enthusiastic about the expected organic growth these improvements will generate for our Asia Pacific Iron Ore operations. We acknowledge the support of, and effort by, the Western Australian Government in overcoming significant policy uncertainties, which had delayed key permits.”

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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 Amapá Project, an iron ore project in the state of Amapá 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.

News releases and other information on the Company are available on the Internet at:

http://www.cliffsnaturalresources.com or

www.cliffsnaturalresources.com/Investors/Pages/default.aspx?b=1041&1=1