A top executive at Cliffs Natural Resources on Monday said the mining and natural resources giant is exploring possible takeover targets.

Chief financial officer Laurie Brlas said Cliffs [CLF 72.53 0.55 (+0.76%) ] is always looking for good deals for their shareholders. Brlas revealed that a future deal could exceed $1 billion, but it's not likely to be a transformative one. The 52-year-old executive said her company is more likely to acquire a smaller business that would help grow their position in metallurgical coal or iron ore.

Cliffs Natural (CLF) 72.53 0.55 (+0.76%%) NYSE

When Cliffs reported third-quarter earnings results on Oct. 28, the Cleveland-based company was considerably more bullish on the metals space than its competitors at the time. With the fourth-quarter soon coming to a close, Brlas noted how other metals names are now also becoming bullish.

Meanwhile, Wall Street is looking at 100 basis points as China is expected to continue tightening, but Brlas said she's not too concerned about how that might affect demand.

"There's a lot of talk about a slowdown in China, but their economy grew by 9.6 percent in the last quarter," she noted. "So its still a strong economy and the segment that we sell into is very strong and very stable. so we think we will not be significantly affected."