Please note: Item of interest!!!!

__________________

Thursday October 18, 12:43 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: United States Steel LLC
Minntac Passes Two-Billion-Ton Milestone


MOUNTAIN IRON, Minn., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Minntac Mining Operations
of United States Steel LLC passed a major milestone recently when it mined
its two-billionth ton of material. The total includes nearly 1.3 billion
tons of crude ore and approximately 416 million tons of waste rock and 296
million tons of overburden.


Minntac became the nation's first iron ore mining operation to reach this
production landmark when one of the mine's 35-cubic-yard shovels loaded
rock onto a 240-ton production truck at 2:06 a.m., Saturday, October 6. The
load was then taken to the Minntac Coarse Crusher where it was ground into
gravel-sized chunks to be used in the taconite process.


``This symbolic milestone reflects the hard work, innovation and dedication
of thousands of Minntac employees over the past half century,'' said
Minntac General Manager Jim Swearingen. ``It also reflects U. S. Steel's
continuing commitments to the Minnesota Iron Range and Minntac, where the
company has invested more than $200 million during the past five years to
enhance our operations and make Minntac more competitive in terms of
product quality and efficiency.


``We mined our two-billionth ton 50 years after U. S. Steel broke ground
for the Pilotac mine, the forerunner of Minntac, and only 15 years after we
passed the one-billion-ton mark in May 1986. We're looking forward to
reaching the next billion-ton plateau.''


On October 2, 1967, Minntac began processing taconite into pellets used in
blast furnaces to make the molten iron used in making steel, including high
value grades for the automotive, appliance, construction and other
industries. When it first began making taconite pellets, Minntac had a
rated annual capacity of 4.5 million tons. U. S. Steel has since nearly
quadrupled that capacity and, to date, Minntac has processed a total of 374
million tons of taconite pellets.


U. S. Steel's Minntac iron ore operations at Mountain Iron employ
approximately 1,600 workers and produce about 16.4 million tons of taconite
pellets annually. Minntac, North America's largest taconite pellet
producer, covers nearly 40,000 acres, including a mine that stretches 12
miles along the Mesabi Range.