CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC.

The Board has nominated the following eight individuals to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors shall be elected: Lourenco Goncalves; Ralph S. Michael, III; John T. Baldwin; Ron A. Bloom; Edilson T. Camara; Jane M. Cronin; Ben Oren; and Arlene M. Yocum. All of the director nominees named herein are independent under the NYSE director independence standards, except for Mr. Goncalves. All of the nominees, except for Mr. Camara, were elected by the shareholders at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on May 15, 2025. The Board appointed Mr. Camara to the Board on November 12, 2025.

Each of the director nominees has consented to his or her name being submitted by Cliffs as a nominee for election as a member of the Board. Each such nominee has further consented to serve as a member of the Board if elected. Should any nominee decline or be unable to accept such nomination to serve as a director, an event that we currently do not anticipate, the persons named as proxies reserve the right, in their discretion, to vote for a lesser number of nominees or for substitute nominees designated by the directors, to the extent consistent with our Regulations.

The nominees for election to the Board have diversified professional experience in general management, steel manufacturing and processing, mining, metallurgical engineering, operations, finance and accounting, investment banking, labor, ESG, law, risk management and other fields. Celso Goncalves, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, is the son of Lourenco Goncalves, our Chairman, President and CEO and a director nominee. There is no other family relationship among any of our nominees and executive officers. The average age of the director nominees is 64, ranging from ages 46 to 71. The average years of service of the director nominees is 5.1 years, ranging from less than a year to over 11 years of service.

Ms. Green and Mr. Stoliar are not standing for re-election at our 2026 Annual Meeting. Mr. Taylor submitted a mandatory conditional resignation from the Board in connection with his professional change in circumstances, which resignation was accepted by the Board with immediate effect on February 22, 2026.

In the election of directors, the nominees receiving a plurality vote of the shares will be elected. However, under our Board-adopted majority voting policy contained in our Corporate Governance Guidelines, in an uncontested election, any director nominee that is elected by a plurality vote but fails to receive a majority of votes cast (which excludes abstentions and broker non-votes) is expected to tender his or her resignation, which resignation will be considered by the Governance Committee and the Board.

Under Ohio law, shareholders have the right to exercise cumulative voting in the election of directors as described under “Cumulative Voting for Election of Directors” on page 7. If cumulative voting rights are in effect for the election of directors, which we currently do not anticipate to be the case, you may allocate among the director nominees, as you see fit, the total number of votes equal to the number of director positions to be filled multiplied by the number of shares you hold.