Cleveland-Cliffs Soars on Rare-Earths Ambition: From Steel to Strategic Minerals

With input from CNBC, Bloomberg, and Investor’s Business Daily.

Cleveland-Cliffs just gave Wall Street a reason to pay attention beyond steel. Shares jumped about 17% Monday after CEO Lourenco Goncalves said the company is evaluating a move into rare-earths mining, with two prospective sites in Michigan and Minnesota showing promising geology.

“We’re working with the geologists to assess whether these deposits could become commercially viable,” he told investors on the Q3 call, adding that mining is in Cliffs’ DNA.

The timing is anything but accidental. Rare earths — critical for the high-powered magnets inside US weapons systems, EV motors, chip equipment and robotics — remain one of the tightest choke points in global supply chains. China dominates the sector and recently tightened export controls, prompting President Donald Trump to threaten 100% tariffs in response. The US, meanwhile, has exactly one commercial rare-earths mine. The Pentagon struck a deal in July with that operator, MP Materials, that included an equity stake, a price floor and an offtake agreement — fueling speculation the administration could cut similar arrangements with other domestic players trying to stand up mining and processing at home.

That’s the lane Cliffs is eyeing. If the Michigan and Minnesota projects pencil out, they would neatly align with the White House’s push for “critical mineral independence,” as Goncalves put it: American manufacturing shouldn’t hinge on Beijing’s goodwill. For investors, the appeal is straightforward — Cliffs already runs complex iron-ore operations, understands permitting and logistics, and could bolt a strategic minerals business onto an existing industrial footprint at a moment when Washington is writing real checks to de-risk the supply chain.

There are plenty of hurdles ahead: drilling, feasibility work, financing, environmental reviews and, crucially, processing capacity, which has long been the US bottleneck. But in a market where policy is picking winners and China is tightening the spigot, simply getting in the queue can be a catalyst. Monday’s stock pop showed as much.