Mr Pedro Sanchez Gamarra Peru’s energy & mines minister announced in Lima that Doe Run Peru may file for bankruptcy to restructure debt at its shuttered zinc and lead smelter.

He told reporters that “Peru’s antitrust office Indecopi will study the situation at the company, a unit of Renco Group Inc.

He told that “Once it becomes a reality, we will see what is to be done. We need a global solution as we’ve been going over and over the same issue.”

Mr Jose Mogrovejo VPof Doe Run declined to confirm if the company will file for bankruptcy. He said that “Company and government officials will meet for talks on August 5. A bankruptcy process would protect the company’s assets and workers’ jobs. But it is a technical process we can not comment on beforehand.”

Workers from the company have also threatened to ask the government to appoint new management at the company.

Banks halted lending to Doe Run in February after metal prices collapsed. On June 2, the smelter shut all operations after suppliers refused to sell it raw materials.

As per report, Doe Run Peru owes some USD 100 million to its suppliers and needs to spend another USD 150 million to clean up La Oroya, which often ranks as one of the world's most polluted sites.

Doe Run Peru is country's No 4 metals exporters and is a unit of the US based holding company Renco Group. It owns the sprawling La Oroya smelter.

(Sourced from Bloomberg and Reuters)