London 13/07/2016 - Peru's troubled La Oroya polymetallic smelter could reopen if Peru's president-elect gets his way.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said last Wednesday he would make a "strong effort" to reopen the plant, which produced 122,000 tonnes of lead, 70,000 tonnes of copper and 43,000 tonnes of zinc per year before its closure in 2009.
"La Oroya is dying and we have to change that. We have to give it oxygen, oxygen from investors," Kuczynski, a former economist and investment banker who narrowly won a run-off vote and will assume Peru's premiership on July 28, told a television audience and amassed former employees of the plant who were marching on Lima.
The smelter, which will be liquidated on August 27 if a buyer is not found, was closed after previous owner Doe Run Peru sank into bankruptcy amid collapsing metal prices, unable to pay to keep the plant going or to finance the enormous clean-up operation for polluting the surrounding area.
Doe Run Peru split off from its namesake company in the US in 2007.
The smelter has also been criticised by the Blacksmith Institute for causing lead, cadmium and arsenic poisoning throughout the local community. Time Magazine referred to it as "one of the most polluted places in the world".
Doe Run was also used by trading companies to toll high-impurity metal concentrates, particularly lead.
Market participants remain doubtful that the smelter will reopen, with the financial burden of cleaning up the town and settling lawsuits too high. But in November last year government secured an agreement with Doe Run's creditors that could assist any restart.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)