On December 27, 2012, the Board of Directors of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. authorized the sale of the company's 30% interest in the Amap joint venture located in Brazil. Anglo American plc currently owns the remaining 70% of Amap. Both the Company and Anglo American will be selling their respective interests in a 100% sale transaction to a single entity.

Based on the results of the broad auction process and the terms of the pending sale, management of the company made a determination on December 27, 2012 that the value of its Amap Interest recorded in the financial records of the company needs to be adjusted to reflect the fair value of investment. Accordingly, the company will record a pretax impairment charge of approximately $380 million to $420 million, all of which is non-cash, in the company's financial statements as of December 31, 2012. The company does not expect that the sale of the Amap Interest will result in material future cash expenditures.