Final bids for BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) failed Ravensthorpe nickel operation in Western Australia are due Nov. 25, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.

Australia's Minara Resources Ltd. (MRE.AU) as well as Poseidon Nickel Ltd. (POS.AU) and China Metallurgical Group Corp., or MCC, remain in the running to take over the idled nickel laterite operation, another two people familiar with the bidding process said.

BHP closed the US$2.1 billion mine in January, only eight months after it was commissioned, because it struggled to achieve the production needed to turn a profit.

Nickel laterite mines are much more costly and complicated to operate than sulfide ore bodies and BHP commissioned Ravensthorpe at a time of plummeting nickel prices.

"MCC, Poseidon and Minara remain in the bidding," one person said, but he also flagged interest from other companies without elaborating.

Earlier this month, China's Jinchuan Group exited from the bidding process as well as Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer.

Minara has confirmed its participation in the sale. A spokesman for Poseidon, chaired by Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. Chief Executive Andrew Forrest, declined to comment.

Forrest has experience with challenging nickel laterite projects having headed up troubled miner Anaconda Nickel which was later revived as Minara.

-By Elisabeth Behrmann and Alex Wilson, Dow Jones Newswires;

61-2-8272-4689 elisabeth.behrmann@dowjones.com
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