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Doe Run Resources

Doe Run Resources is the largest integrated lead producer in North America and the largest primary lead producer in the western world. It owns two primary lead smelters (only one is active), five mills (four of which are active), several mines, the world's largest secondary lead smelter, all in S E Missouri, USA, a polymetallic smelter at La Oroya and copper mine at Cobriza in Peru and lead fabricating facilities in Arizona and Washington. It is wholly owned by the Renco Group which is in turn wholly owned by trusts established by the Chairman and CEO, Mr Ira Rennert for himself and his family. Total primary production in 2005 was 376,200 tonnes, equivalent to 11.5% of world production that year. It also produced 123,800 tonnes of secondary lead and smaller tonnages of zinc and copper in concentrate.

Background

Doe Run started life in 1864 as the St Joseph Lead Company, better known as St Joe, which started lead mining on a small scale in southeastern Missouri. Despite the isolation and hardships of those days it prospered and in 1892 it started up its smelter in Herculaneum, where all smelting was consolidated in 1920. It was active elsewhere and eventually owned mines (now disposed of) in South America and zinc operations in New York State, USA. It also built up a portfolio of gold mines and prospects, including Chile's largest gold mine, El Indio, which became St Joe Gold. It was sold in the 1980s and is now part of Barrick Gold.

With the gradual exhaustion of the Old Lead Belt after WWII, St Joe and others explored further in the area and found several other deposits, including the extensive Viburnum Trend on which Doe Run's US mining operations are now concentrated.

In 1981, St Joe was acquired by the Fluor Corporation. In 1986 St Joe and Homestake lead formed a short lived partnership called the Doe Run Company which brought Homestake's Buick mine, mill and smelter into St Joe. After dissolution of the partnership, St Joe converted the Buick smelter for lead recycling, which grew to be the biggest single site facility in the world. In 1994 the Renco Group acquired St Joe from Fluor and renamed the company the Doe Run Resources Corporation, registered to do business as the Doe Run Company.

In 1994 Doe Run acquired lead fabricating facilities and in 1997 it more than doubled in size with the purchase of the La Oroya smelter and Cobriza copper mine in Peru. 1998 saw more expansion with the acquisition of ASARCO's Missouri Lead Division and its two mines and mills.

Operations in the United States

Doe Run's US mines are all on the Viburnum Trend, a 64 km long mineralised shoot with an average width of 150 metres, thickness of 3 to 30 metres and average depth of 300 metres. It is a classic Mississippi Valley type lead/zinc deposit in Cambrian carbonate rocks though it contains an unusually high proportion of lead. The principal minerals are galena (lead, PbS) and sphalerite (zinc, ZnS) with lesser amounts of chalcopyrite (copper, CuFeS₂). At the end of October 2005, ore reserves were approximately 34 million proven and probable tons at average grades of 6.23% lead, 1.36% zinc and 0.26% copper.

As of end October 2006, the company had six production shafts feeding four mills with a combined capacity of 21,000 tonnes per day which produced 255,600 tonnes of lead in concentrate plus zinc and copper byproducts. This was transported by public road to the primary lead smelter at Herculaneum, 56 km (35 miles) south of St Louis. It has a capacity of 227,000 tonnes lead annually but is limited by permit to 181,500 tonnnes. 2006 production was 140,300 tonnes of primary lead. The balance of the lead concentrates plus the zinc and copper concentrates were sold to to other smelters One shaft, mill and smelter (Glover) were not in operation..

The recycling smelter at Boss, Missouri, handles old batteries, scrap lead and lead bearing hazardous waste. It is permitted to produce 152,410 tonnes of lead annually and in 2005 produced only 123,800 tonnes of secondary lead due to a tight scrap market. Fabricated Products produces value-added lead products such as lead oxide, lead sheet and lead pipes at facilities in Arizona and Washington.

Pollution at the US operations

Doe Run has been cited regularly by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for infringing emission limits, contaminating roads and generally polluting the immediate vicinity of the smelter. Exceeding of emission limits has resulted in the reduction of the permitted capacity of the Herculaneum smelter. Road contamination has resulted in orders to clean up certain roads and to wash down vehicles before they go onto public roads. The company has also been ordered by the EPA to address issues relating to elevated lead blood levels in the community and lead in community soils adjacent to the smelter. It has also spent US$10.4 million on buying up to 160 residential properties close to the smelter that are contaminated and is to clean up contaminated soils.

Operations in Peru

See entry on La Oroya for more details

Doe Run owns 99.97% of the La Oroya polymetallic smelter. It was established by the American Cerro de Pasco Corporation in 1922, was nationalised and became the property of Centromin in 1974 and was then privatised in 1997 when Doe Run bought it for US$247 million. It consists of a copper and lead smelter and zinc refinery. These are closely integrated and have additional circuits to recover byproducts, particularly from the 'dirty concentrates' produced by a number of local mines They include gold and silver (mainly from refinery residues), antimony, arsenic trioxide, bismuth, cadmium, indium, selenium, tellurium, sulfuric acid and oleum. Production in 2006 was 48,600 tonnes copper, 120,,600 tonnes lead, 45,000 tonnes of zinc, 34 million ounce of silver and 67,000 ounces of gold.

The company also owns the Cobriza copper mine, south of La Oroya, bought for US$7.5 million to ensure at least part of the concentrate supply to the smelter. It produced 16,244 tonnes of copper in concentrat in 2006 and had reserves of 6.5 million tonnes grading 1.2% copper.

Pollution at the Peruvian operations

When Doe Run took over La Oroya, it also took over Centromin's PAMA (Programa de Adecuación y Manejo Ambiental or Environmental Remediation and Management Program), an environmental contract requiring environmental remediation measures that were to be completed over the next ten years. In the event this had to be extended to twelve years with Peruvian Government permission. Basically this programme was to curb emissions of all types, gases, particulates and polluted water and clean up around the smelter and its waste dumps.

Until 1997 the smelter had been run without any concern for the environment with the result that the hills around the smelter had been reduced to a moonscape by sulphur dioxide from the smelters; the already polluted river had been made even more polluted by untreated process water; the soil in the city and surroundings had become contaminated with lead; the people in the city, especially the young, had dangerous levels of lead in their blood and many had bronchial troubles. In fact it was rated as one of the ten most polluted cities in the world by the Blacksmith Institute, a New York based environmental group"..

Conditions are gradually improving. Doe Run has reported reductions in river pollution and lead, arsenic and cadmium emissions. Sulphur dioxide emissions will have been reduced by the recent commissioning of the lead smelter acid plant. and should be under control when the acid plant for the new copper smelter starts up in October 2008.

Lead Usage

Because of its toxicity, lead has lost many of its traditional markets such as paint, solder, tetraethyl lead (an additive to petrol/gasoline) and piping. On the other hand it remains in strong demand for lead acid storage batteries which have been the dominant technology for automotive and other starting, lighting and ignition batteries as well as for motive power, telecommunication, network power, uninterruptible power systems and emergency lighting. By the early 2000's, the total demand for lead in all types of lead-acid storage batteries represented 88% of apparent U.S. lead consumption.