AN AERIAL VIEW of Cleveland-Cliff's Tilden Mine pit and facility near Ishpeming in June 2020. (Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. photo)

MARQUETTE — Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will be accelerating the restart of its Tilden Mine operations and resuming construction of its hot-briquetted iron plant in Toledo, Ohio, it announced in a press release Tuesday.

The Tilden Mine, which is located in National Mine and employs roughly 850 people, is expected to restart later this month.

It was temporarily idled in April and was expected to start operations again in July. The earlier restart of Tilden comes in response to a faster improvement in steel demand from AK Steel’s clients than initially anticipated, particularly in the automotive sector, the release states.

Around 690 people were laid off during the temporary idle.

According to a United Steelworkers updated activity log dated Sunday, a handful of employees had already been temporarily called back from the layoff for plant cleaning at the Tilden Mine facility.

The mine primarily supplies the Cliffs-owned AK Steel facilities in downstate Dearborn and Middletown, Ohio.

Cliffs has also begun the process of remobilizing the workforce to complete construction on the Toledo HBI plant project, the release states. Construction was delayed and is expected to be completed by the end of the year due to mandatory social distancing and other newly implemented safety-related measures limiting the number of workers allowed to be present simultaneously on the job.

Cliffs Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Lourenco Goncalves said the demand for steel, iron ore and metallics products has “recovered dramatically over the past month.”

“(I)n light of this, we are restarting Toledo and Tilden sooner than we originally expected,” Goncalves said in the release. “We suspended these operations in a way that allowed us to restart as easily and efficiently as possible, and that is what we will do. Our footprint is well situated to capitalize on the rapidly increasing demand from the automotive sector, which is occurring faster than our most aggressive expectations.”

Cliffs officials could not be reached for comment before press time regarding safety measures associated with the reopening of the Tilden or an exact timeline for resuming operations of the facility.

The company has also already restarted numerous other previously idled facilities across its footprint, including Precision Partners, AK Tube, Mansfield Works and the Dearborn downstream facilities, including the picking line and tandem cold mill and the galvanizing line, the release states.