Lead

Statistics and Information:  Lead is a very corrosion-resistant, dense, ductile, and malleable blue-gray metal that has been used for at least 5,000 years.  Early uses of lead included building materials, pigments for glazing ceramics, and pipes for transporting water.  The castles and cathedrals of Europe contain considerable quantities of lead in decorative fixtures, roofs, pipes, and windows.  Prior to the early 1900's, uses of lead in the United States were primarily for ammunition, brass, burial vault liners, ceramic glazes, leaded glass and crystal, paints or other protective coatings, pewter, and water lines and pipes.  The advent of the electrical age and communications, which were accelerated by technological developments in World War I, resulted in the addition of bearing metals, cable covering, caulking lead, solders, and type metal to the list of lead uses.  With the growth in production of public and private motorized vehicles and the associated use of starting-lighting-ignition (SLI) lead-acid storage batteries and terne metal for gas tanks after World War I, demand for lead increased.  Most of these uses for lead continued to increase with the growth in population and the national economy.  Contributing to the increase in demand for lead was the use of lead as radiation shielding in medical analysis and video display equipment and as an additive in gasoline.

By the mid-1980's, a significant shift in lead end-use patterns had taken place.   Much of this shift was a result of the U.S. lead consumers compliance with environmental regulations that significantly reduced or eliminated the use of lead in nonbattery products, including gasoline, paints, solders, and water systems.  More recently, as the use of lead in nonbattery products has continued to decline, the demand for lead in SLI-type batteries has continued to grow.  In addition, the demand for lead in non-SLI battery applications also has continued to grow.   Non-SLI battery applications include motive sources of power for industrial forklifts, airport ground equipment, mining equipment, and a variety of nonroad utility vehicles, as well as stationary sources of power in uninterruptible electric power systems for hospitals, computer and telecommunications networks, and load-leveling equipment for electric utility companies.  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.  Other significant uses included ammunition (3%), oxides in glass and ceramics (3%), casting metals (2%), and sheet lead (1%).  The remainder was consumed in solders, bearing metals, brass and bronze billets, covering for cable, caulking lead, and extruded products.

Lead
(Data in thousand metric tons of lead content unless otherwise noted)

Domestic Production and Use:  The value of recoverable mined lead in 2007, based on the average U.S. producer price, was $1.17 billion. Five lead mines in Missouri, plus lead-producing mines in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Washington, yielded most of the total. Primary lead was processed at one smelter-refinery in Missouri. Of the 21 plants that produced secondary lead, 12 had annual capacities of 15,000 tons or more and accounted for more than 99% of secondary production. Lead was consumed at about 110 manufacturing plants. The lead-acid battery industry continued to be the principal user of lead, accounting for 89% of the reported U.S. lead consumption for 2007. Lead-acid batteries were primarily used as starting-lighting-ignition (SLI) batteries for automobiles and trucks. Lead-acid batteries were also used as industrial-type batteries for uninterruptible power-supply equipment for computer and telecommunications networks and hospitals; for load-leveling equipment for commercial electrical power systems; and as traction batteries used in airline ground equipment, industrial forklifts, mining vehicles, golf carts, etc. About 8% of lead was used in ammunition; casting material; sheets (including radiation shielding), pipes, traps and extruded products; cable covering, caulking lead, and building construction; solder; and oxides for glass, ceramics, pigments, and chemicals. The balance was used in ballast and counter weights, brass and bronze, foil, terne metal, type metal, wire, and other undistributed consumption.

Salient Statistics:   United States