On January 28, 2014, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. issued a statement in response to Casablanca Capital stating that it welcomes open communications with all of its shareholders and values their input toward the collective goal shared by the Company's board and management, which is to enhance long-term shareholder value. The Company also stated that it has held productive preliminary conversations with Casablanca Capital and looks forward to continuing the dialogue to better understand Casablanca's assumptions, projections and overall views. Further, the Company said that as part of its goal to enhance shareholder value, over the last year, it has made significant changes to strengthen its Board of Directors and management team, including the addition of 4 new board members and a new chairman.

Further, the Company said that it has taken steps to improve its financial and operating performance across all of its businesses.