bwire






NEW YORK (Business Wire) -- Casablanca Capital LP, ("Casablanca") the beneficial owner of
approximately 5.2% of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF), today
issued the following statement on the latest Cliffs press release:




"The press release issued by Cliffs before engaging with Casablanca's
principals is another public relations ruse by an incompetent and
entrenched Board that has failed shareholders -- and in our view not a
genuine attempt to reach a settlement that will create the fundamental
change shareholders clearly want and deserve. We have no intention of
negotiating through press releases but remain willing, as we have
detailed in our public filings, to enter into a reasonable settlement
that provides for real change. The current Board must be held
accountable for wasting $9 billion on a disastrous diversification
strategy and overseeing the destruction of 85% of shareholder value.
Shareholders deserve better."




About Casablanca Capital LP




Casablanca Capital is an Event Driven and Activist investment manager
based in New York, founded in 2010 by Donald G. Drapkin and Douglas
Taylor. Casablanca invests in high quality but underperforming public
companies that have multiple levers to unlock shareholder value. The
firm seeks to engage with the management, Boards, and shareholders of
those companies in a constructive dialogue in order to enhance
shareholder value through improved operational efficiencies, strategic
divestitures, capital structure optimization and increased corporate
focus. In 2011, Casablanca successfully initiated a campaign at Mentor
Graphics Corporation to improve profitability and enhance value at the
company, working with shareholders to elect three nominees to Mentor's
Board.