A March 20 fire that officials described as minor has forced the shutdown of smelting operations at the Doe Run lead smelter in Herculaneum for several weeks, the company says.
The plant’s 277 employees are continuing to report to work, getting the plant ready to re-start, said Gary Hughes, Doe Run’s general manager in Herculaneum.
“Employees also are heavily involved in major maintenance work that would be required during a scheduled shutdown,” Hughes said. “We have moved up our scheduled maintenance to coincide with the unplanned shutdown.”
In a press release, Hughes said the fire significantly damaged the Herculaneum plant’s substation.
“We’ve identified the damaged equipment and have replacement parts ordered. Delivery and installation of the equipment is expected to take four to six weeks,” he said. “We’re doing all that we can to expedite the process, but in the meantime our primary metal production is on hold.”
The shutdown of operations has no impact on the company’s long-term plans for the plant, Hughes said Thursday (March 29). Doe Run’s fire-based lead smelter is targeted for permanent closure in 2013 as part of a 2010 consent agreement between the company and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Hughes said the site remains in contention as a possible location for a new wet chemical process of extracting lead from ore if Doe Run officials decide to build a plant featuring the technology.
At present, Hughes said Doe Run is using generators to provide temporary power to operate some sections of the facility.
“We will adjust our production plans for the balance of the year to account for the outage,” he said.
The company is continuing to produce recycled lead metal from its secondary smelter in Boss, Mo.
“We know this directly impacts our customers,” said Jose Hansen, Doe Run vice president of sales marketing. “We’ve contacted each of them to let them know we’re doing all we can to expedite repairs.”
The Herculaneum Fire Department responded to the fire call at about 4:20 a.m. March 20. Firefighters had to wait until power was shut off to fight the blaze, but it did not take long to put out the fire at that point, fire department officials said.
At the time, officials said operations were shut down, but did not indicate the problems might persist for weeks to come. No one was injured in the fire, which occurred at an electrical substation near the entrance to the facility at 881 Main St.
Firefighters remained on scene for about two hours.
--Kevin Carbery
