Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine  Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation is a nickel mine and hydrometallurgical processing plant located southeast of Perth, and east of Ravensthorpe, Western Australia at Bandalup Hill. Ravensthorpe cost BHP Billiton US$2.2 billion to build but led to $3.6 billion in write-downs when it was shut down in January 2009, after less than a year of operation. The closure caused considerable bad publicity for the owner, prompting the operation to be placed on the market. The mine was sold in December 2009 to First Quantum Minerals for US$340 million. First Quantum Minerals successfully returned the operation to commercial production in December 2011, after 18 months of modifications and re-commissioning. Following a period of low nickel prices, the operation was placed on care and maintenance in October 2017, with the loss of 270 local jobs. Mining in Ravensthorpe considerably predates the current nickel mine, with gold discoveries dating back to 1898. The town experienced a down turn after the First World War but mining for copper continued up until the 1970s. A railway line connected Ravensthorpe with the port of Hopetoun from 1901 to 1925, when the line was closed. BHP Billiton commenced a feasibility study in 2002 into opening a nickel and cobalt mine and processing plant at the cost of A$1.4 billion east of the town of Ravensthorpe. The project was approved in 2004 and construction commenced shortly afterward. The plant known as the Ravensthorpe Nickel Project was commissioned in late 2007 with first production occurring in October and the first 5,000 tonnes being produced by December 2007. The plant was officially opened in 2008, after massive cost blow outs and delays. Production was expected to total 50,000 tonnes of nickel per year. In January 2009, BHP Billiton announced that it was suspending production at the Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation indefinitely, due to the reduction in world nickel prices caused by the global economic crisis. The decision cut 1,800 jobs and was expected to have a major impact on the local economy. Nickel prices, having reached a high of US$50,000 per tonne in May 2007, had fallen to under $11,000 per tonne by the time of the mine's closure. The closure had a devastating effect on the local communities of Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun and led to BHP Billiton being heavily criticised for its handling of the closure.