Peru to Ask Doe Run to Build $100 Million Acid Plant
By Alex Emery - Dec 10, 2010 9:45 AM PT
bloomberg.com
Doe Run Peru will be required to build a $100 million plant to retain sulfuric acid emissions before it can restart copper production at its shuttered La Oroya smelter, Energy & Mines Minister Pedro Sanchez said.
The government may cancel the smelter concession after the Renco Group Inc. unit, which filed for bankruptcy last year, failed to reach an accord with creditors, Sanchez told reporters today at the ministry.
"The company must comply with its environmental cleanup plan," Sanchez said. “The other option is for its creditors to run the smelter.”
Doe Run shut its Peruvian zinc, lead and copper smelter last year after metals prices plunged at least 50 percent in London in 2008.
Doe Run Vice President Jose Mogrovejo didn’t return two telephone calls and an e-mail seeking comment.
Peruvian metals output may decline next year before Xstrata Plc and Cia. Minera Antamina SA complete expansions at their copper mines in 2012, Sanchez said. Copper production fell 2.5 percent and gold dropped 11 percent through October, according to the ministry.
Copper futures for March delivery rose 2.7 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $4.114 a pound at 10:06 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Zinc for delivery in three months fell $22.50, or 1 percent, to $2,277.50 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, and lead fell $15, or 0.6 percent, to $2,390 per ton.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Emery in Lima at aemery1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net |
