Peru Min: Doe Run Peru Hasn't Given Start Up Date Yet

LIMA, May 05, 2010 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- Energy and Mines Minister Pedro Sanchez said that so far, Doe Run Peru, a unit of the U.S.-based Renco Group Inc, hasn't given a firm date on when it will restart operations at its shuttered polymetallic smelter.

In a presentation before Congress, Sanchez said that Doe Run has also informed the government that it hasn't firmed up financing that would allow it to restart operations.

According to a statement Wednesday from Congress, Sanchez said that Doe Run has only three months in which to restart operations under a previously worked out deal.

Doe Run's smelter, which normally produces copper, lead and zinc, was closed following a cutoff in bank loans which prevented it from paying for metal concentrates.

Without an agreement with concentrate providers, Doe Run cannot restart operations, analysts say.

Doe Run recently reached a financing deal with Glencore International AG, which reportedly gave it about $100 million and which was aimed at allowing a restart of smelter operations.

The company has also been in a dispute with the government over an environmental clean up. Doe Run was given a 30-month extension to its environmental clean up deadline, from the original deadline of Oct. 31, 2009.

Doe Run Peru's smelter, northeast of the capital Lima, is known as one of the most polluted places on earth. Its metallurgical complex produces copper, lead, zinc and smaller amounts of other metals.