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Productivity decisions in the modern corporation have a lot to do with time savings, costs and the flow of paperwork, product and services needed to run the organization. In manufacturing the location of the raw materials needed for production are a huge consideration, not only due to transportation costs, but also to insure timed deliveries as needed. If a shipment is missed this could take down the entire assembly line or cause a complete work stoppage.
To insure this does not happen, often a manufacturing company must store the raw materials as they arrive until they are needed during the production cycles. The further the distance or potential disruption in transportation or other issues, the more must be stored on the property or nearby, thus, drastically increasing costs and complicating the supporting supply chain.
A manufacturing company that wishes to stay competitive in a global economy must be as close to its' raw materials as possible to save in the transportation and storage costs to insure flawless and continuous production schedules. Work stoppages in assembly lines can quickly destroy profit margins and render the manufacturing company insolvent. The competitors seeing this weakness will flood the markets with products and make major inroads in market share if this occurs.
When a raw material mine closes often the manufacturing customers of the mine are putting into a terrible situation, often one that is unrecoverable and increases their costs to a point that they can no longer compete. It is like a cascading cost pile-up with inevitable consequences, so please consider this.
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