Doe Run to invest US$226mn at Oroya by 2011

St. Louis-based metals company Doe Run said it plans to spend invest US$226mn in its La Oroya metallurgical complex in central Peru over the next seven years, company president and CEO Bruce Neil was quoted as saying in local daily Gestion. Most of that amount will go to meeting environment related performance objectives, as stated under the PAMA Environmental Management Program, as well as some investments in the short-term to control gas leaks recently found in the complex. Other investments will go to the planned construction of an acid plant at La Oroya. Doe Run bought La Oroya from the Peruvian government in a privatization process in 1997. The deal included the implementation of the PAMA plan, then estimated at US$107mn. La Oroya produces copper, lead, zinc, silver and bismuth. Last year the complex recorded US$41mn in sales. It is located some 220km west of capital Lima.