PERU'S CENTROMIN SAYS NO COPPER FORCE MAJEURE
Peru's biggest state mining firm,
Centromin SA, said today there was no immediate force majeure
possibility on its copper shipments after guerrillas blew up a
railway line, interrupting train traffic from the Cobriza
copper mine to the Pacific coast.
    A Centromin spokesman said the managers of the mine at
Cobriza could always ship the the mineral by road to the coast
for export if the train line continued interrupted. Cobriza
produced the equivalent of around 40,600 fine tonnes of copper
last year.
    Maoist guerrillas using dynamite interrupted train traffic
two days ago when they blew up railway tracks and derailed a
train laden with minerals 225 km (135 miles) east of Lima at
Chacapalca, between the coast and Cobriza.
    An official at Minero Peru Comercial, Minpeco, Peru's state
minerals marketing firm, confirmed there had been no
declaration of force majeure on the shipments from Cobriza.
    Officials at National Train Company, Enafer, headquarters
in Lima, the Peruvian capital, declined to comment on when
train traffic would be restored to Cobriza.
    But an Enafer official, reached by telephone in the central
Andean city of Huancayo, near Chacapalca, said traffic could be
restored by Saturday.
 Reuter
