Take Ravensthorpe as an example - the sacked workers will mostly relocate to other parts (despite that being a lovely part of Australia, let's face it, you gotta eat) - being one of the later projects of the boom, I'd say a lot were blow-ins, and also newbies to the industry trying to cash in - they will find other jobs - at a guess, I'd say in a completely different industry given their newly acquired view on the longevity of the mining boom losing them to the boom/bust mining game forever - As EL said, BHP will want spot and way out forward prices to be well north of what makes Ravensthorpe profitable before they consider restarting and also taking into account the extra capex that will still required and not to mention the psychological cloud the place now has hovering over any future BHP board making the decision - to restart they will have to rehire and train all these new people and at a guess in a once again tight labour environment as mining hits its next boom (a condition that will have to be to give the almost USD10/lb needed for Ravensthorpe to satisfy BHP's ROE, ROC tests for a restart decision)
I would bet we will not see Ravensthorpe again producing under BHP or at least not for many years
WSA Price at posting:
$3.64 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
