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NATURE OF BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATION
12 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2021
NATURE OF BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATION  
NATURE OF BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATION

NOTE 1 - NATURE OF BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATION

Nature of Business

Mesabi Trust (“Mesabi Trust” or the “Trust”), formed pursuant to an Agreement of Trust dated July 18, 1961 (the “Agreement of Trust”), is a trust organized under the laws of the State of New York. Mesabi Trust holds all of the interests formerly owned by Mesabi Iron Company (“MIC”), including all right, title and interest in the Amendment of Assignment, Assumption and Further Assignment of Peters Lease (the “Amended Assignment of Peters Lease”), the Amendment of Assignment, Assumption and Further Assignment of Cloquet Lease (the “Amended Assignment of Cloquet Lease” and together with the Amended Assignment of Peters Lease, the “Amended Assignment Agreements”), the beneficial interest in a trust organized under the laws of the State of Minnesota to administer the Mesabi Fee Lands (as defined below) as the trust corpus in compliance with the laws of the State of Minnesota on July 18, 1961 (the “Mesabi Land Trust”) and all other assets and property identified in the Agreement of Trust. The Amended Assignment of Peters Lease relates to an Indenture made as of April 30, 1915 among East Mesaba Iron Company (“East Mesaba”), Dunka River Iron Company (“Dunka River”) and Claude W. Peters (the “Peters Lease”) and the Amended Assignment of Cloquet Lease relates to an indenture made May 1, 1916 between Cloquet Lumber Company and Claude W. Peters (the “Cloquet Lease”).

Mesabi Trust was created in 1961 upon the liquidation of Mesabi Iron Company. The sole purpose of the Trust, as set forth in the Agreement of Trust dated as of July 18, 1961, is to conserve and protect the Trust Estate and to collect and distribute the income and proceeds there from to the Trust’s certificate holders after the payment of, or provision for, expenses and liabilities. The Agreement of Trust prohibits the Trust from engaging in any business. In accordance with the Agreement of Trust, the Trust will terminate twenty-one years after the death of the survivor of twenty-five persons named in an exhibit to the Agreement of Trust, the youngest of whom was believed to be fifty-four years old as of October 1, 2014.

The lessee/operator of Mesabi Trust’s mineral interests is Northshore Mining Corporation (NMC), a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (Cliffs). Prior to September 30, 1994, the lessee/operator had been a subsidiary of Cyprus Amax Minerals Company and was named Cyprus Northshore Mining Corporation (Cyprus NMC).

Organization

The beneficial interest in Mesabi Trust is represented by 13,120,010 transferable units distributed on July 27, 1961 to shareholders of Mesabi Iron Company.

The Trust’s status as a grantor trust was confirmed by letter ruling addressed to Mesabi Iron Company from the Internal Revenue Service in 1961. As a grantor trust, Mesabi is exempt from Federal income taxes and its income is taxable directly to the Unitholders.