Doe Run Peru is shutting down operations

Doe Run Peru is shutting down operations at its La Oroya metallurgical complex, a company official said Tuesday. “Yes. We are in this process (of shutting down.) The problem is a lack of concentrates,” said Jose Mogrovejo, Doe Run Peru’s vice president for environmental affairs.

Doe Run Peru, a unit of the U.S.-based Renco Group Inc., had earlier worked out a deal with the Peruvian government and private sector suppliers to keep the complex running.

Doe Run Peru closed down almost all of its operations earlier this year after a drop in metals prices and a cutoff to bank loans impeded it from paying for concentrates. Doe Run Peru later resumed some operations after receiving the promise of a $175 million bail out from rivate-sector mining companies who provide minerals to the La Oroya complex.

Peru’s National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy said recently that Doe Run Peru hadn’t lived up to promises made when the company received the private-sector financing deal.

The company said recently that the government hasn’t given any information nor details of any kind of “a viable and satisfactory solution” to its problems.

Doe Run Peru’s metallurgical complex northeast of Lima produces copper, lead, zinc and smaller amounts of other metals.

The company started an upgrade of the facility to meet overnment-mandated environmental standards, although it has asked for greater flexibility in meeting the Oct. 31 deadline.

Doe Run has been operating the La Oroya metallurgical complex since October 1997.