Aug 27 (Reuters) - Doe Run Peru has run into extensive financial trouble this year in a crisis that threatens thousands of jobs and the environmental clean-up of one of the world's most contaminated towns. [ID:nN24134137]

Below are key facts about the company:

* Doe Run Peru operates the La Oroya smelter in central Peru, some 108 miles (174 km) east of the capital city, Lima. It opened in 1922 and is the world's most diversified metals smelter -- churning out gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper and a dozen specialty metals.

* Doe Run Peru, a top 10 metals exporter in Peru, last year produced 53,831 tonnes of copper, 114,259 tonnes of lead, 43,440 tonnes of zinc, 1.07 million fine kilograms of silver, along with 1.69 million fine grams of gold, according to the mining ministry.

* The company, a unit of the U.S.-based Renco Group, took over the La Oroya smelter from state control in 1997, inheriting a plant that had operated with few environmental controls and had contaminated the city and surrounding area with toxic amounts of lead.

* When Doe Run took over La Oroya, it agreed to an environmental contract mandating that Doe Run cut air and water pollution sharply within 10 years. The contract was later extended to 12 years, and it now wants the government to extend an impending October 2009 deadline.

* The city of La Oroya has been called one of the 10 most polluted places in the world by the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based environmental organization.

* A 2005 study by St. Louis University found that more than 90 percent of children in La Oroya had high lead levels in their blood. The government is responsible for cleaning up pollution accumulated in the area before 1997.

* Operations at the smelter have been halted since June after it ran out of money. Banks cut its credit lines late last year as global metal prices plunged, strangling the company's ability to buy mineral concentrates for its refinery.

* The company is owned by New York billionaire Ira Rennert's Renco Group, which owns the U.S.-based Doe Run Co., the largest lead producer in the Western Hemisphere. Critics who oppose any government aid to Doe Run point out that Rennert also owns one of the biggest houses in the United States -- a 66,000 square-foot mansion in New York's Hamptons.

* Environmental health groups have filed a complaint with Inter-American Commission on Human Rights demanding Peru's government take more steps to address the impact of decades of pollution in La Oroya. The case was not filed against the company.

"The complaint is against the government. Instead of defending us, the Peruvian state is on the side of the companies," said Liliana Carhuas, a local health activist. (Compiled by Madelyn Fairbanks; Editing by David Gregorio)

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