Once one of Sale's largest employers, the Nylex company went into voluntary receivership in February and then liquidation in July.

Colin Nicol, Johan Vorster and Sam Davies were appointed receivers by a syndicate of secured lenders, with Nylex having combined debts of about $100 million.

Over the past few weeks, machinery and equipment has been removed from the site in preparation for its sale, with about 80 tonnes of scrap metal removed so far.

Site manager John Walker said receivers McGrathNicol aimed to hand the emptied site back to administrators Ferrier Hodgson by mid-November, who were likely to put it up for sale.

He said Ferrier Hodgson controlled the land and buildings at the Sale site and money made from their sale would go directly to paying Nylex's bank debts.

Mr Walker said the site would need to receive clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency before being sold, which wasn't likely to be an issue.

About 40 workers were made redundant when the plant closed, with no guarantee they would receive their full entitlements.

The workers have so far received the equivalent of the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme payments, a basic payment scheme established to assist employees who lost their jobs due to liquidation or employer bankruptcy, but are still waiting on a second payment.

Mr Walker said McGrathNicol had aimed to have the second payment made by about March next year, but weren't able to do so until all Nylex sites had been sold.

"So basically we're just waiting,'' he said.

"The good news is about 15 or so of the 40 workers who left have found jobs so far.''