Last year Cliffs had three fully operating metallurgical coal mines in the USA and its website still says the North American coal unit produces in excess of 6 million tons.

In April, however, Cliffs announced the Green Ridge No. 1 mine in West Virginia had been indefinitely idled, and there have also been cuts to production and development work at the Pinnacle mine in West Virginia and Oak Grove operations in Alabama.

Cliffs has now “revised” sales volume expectations for the North American coal business to approximately 1.5Mt at an average price of $US100/t, but did not specify the timeframe for these figures.

"While we have begun to see preliminary signs of stabilisation in the North American steelmaking industry, we will continue to ensure our production and inventory are balanced with customer demand," Cliffs North American business unit president Don Gallagher said.

Cliffs has also made a number of production cuts to its iron ore business in line with weak demand due to the steel market slump.

On the basis of amendments to customer supply agreements, the company is expecting to defer 1Mt of purchase obligations for iron pellets from its customers to the first three months of 2010.

Cliffs has a 45% stake of the Sonoma project in Queensland, which is anticipated to produce 3.1 million tonnes this year at a 60:40 mix of thermal and metallurgical coal.