just my ideas

IMHO, if POS manage to acquire the Cawse project/plant it would be great if they also made an attempt to purchase the Ravensthorpe plant if BHP were going to mothball it. (lets hope so)!
Reasons why.

1. Cawse is of higher grade reserve than Raventhorpe (1% compared to .67%). Cawse still has huge further exploration potential and enough ore to feed a 50KT plant for a 20yr mine life. The Cawse project is the second largest laterite deposit in Australia (almost twice the size of Ravensthorpe) after Kalgoorlie Nickel. Current plant is to small for this deposit IMO.
2. The processing technology of Cawse has been proven while Ravensthorpe still needs fine tuning and roughly another $225-800Mil to bring to full capacity.
3. Same type of plant technology (HPAL).
4. The Cawse project is much closer to Windarra and could be feed with 1MTA higher grade Windarra ore.
5. Initially the current Cawse mine could be up and running within 6 months while the Ravensthorpe plant can be relocated over the next 1-2yrs for the future expansion.
6. This would employ Ravensthorpe locals for the next year or so while a crew can be flyin-flyout of Raventhorpe when in full production. This would keep the Gov happy.
7. Also the savings in $'s to expand the Cawse plant. They would still be looking at several $100Mil for purchase, relocation and fine tuning.

Feel free to comment.
Cheers

GV