From NEO to GEO --- an SPS scenario

We were discussing whether it is better to put the manufacturing
facility at L-4/5 and
bring the NEO to L-4/5, or whether we should send the manufacturing cell
to the NEO and send the finished product back to L-4/5. My opinion on this is that if there were any portion of the raw material which went to waste, then we might say that sending mining/manufacturing facilities to the NEO and sending only finished products back to cislunar spacemight involve transporting less mass. But I don't think this is the case. Even the slag left over from the refining operation is useful for shielding, or possibly as reaction mass if mass driver tugs are being used. Given this, since the total amount of material transported back from the asteroid might logically be the same in either case, I say concentrating most industrial operations closer to Earth would be where the advantage lay.