U.S.Geological Survey (USGS): 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)

U.S. Domestic Production and Use: The value of recoverable mined lead in 2008, based on the average U.S. producer price, was $1.23 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 88% of the reported U.S. lead consumption for 2008. 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, golf carts, industrial forklifts, mining vehicles, etc. About 10% of lead was used in ammunition; casting material; pipes, sheets (including radiation shielding), traps and extruded products; building construction, cable covering, and caulking lead; solder; and oxides for ceramics, chemicals, glass, and pigments. The balance was used in ballast and counter weights, brass and bronze, foil, terne metal, type metal, wire, and other undistributed consumption.

U.S. Recycling: About 1.20 million tons of secondary lead was produced, an amount equivalent to 74% of reported domestic lead consumption. Nearly all of it was recovered from old (post-consumer) scrap.

U.S. Import Sources (2004-07): Metal, wrought and unwrought: Canada, 69%; Mexico, 8%; Peru, 7%; China, 6%; and other, 10%.

U.S. Tariff:

U.S. Depletion Allowance: 22% (Domestic), 14% (Foreign).

Events, Trends, and Issues: Prices for refined lead began to drop in the second half of 2008 and continued to decline until yearend, reflective of global demand that weakened during the same period. The average North American Producer and London Metal Exchange cash prices in September were nearly 30% lower than they were at the beginning of 2008. Use of lead worldwide was estimated to have increased by about 5% in 2008, driven primarily by strong economic growth in the information technology, telecommunications, and transportation sectors in China.

Global mine production of lead concentrate increased by about 7% in 2008. Mine production rose in Bolivia, Canada, China, India, Mexico, and Russia owing to new projects coming online, along with expansions at some existing operations. Global production of refined lead in 2008 was expected to be 7% higher than that of the previous year, owing to production increases in Australia, Canada, China, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. China continued to be both the largest producer and consumer of refined lead in the world. The Chinese trade balance for refined lead has shifted during the past year as a result of export tax increases that were implemented in 2007. Chinese exports of refined lead declined by more than 20% during the first half of 2008 compared with those of the same period of the previous year. Conversely, Chinese exports of lead-acid batteries, which are not subject to the higher export taxes, have increased in 2008 compared with those of the previous year.

According to Battery Council International statistics, demand for replacement SLI batteries in 2008 was expected to be up slightly from that of 2007, whereas original equipment SLI demand was down, the latter being consistent with lower new vehicle sales figures.

In October, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule that substantially strengthened the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for lead. The revised standards, which must be attained no later than January 2017, are significantly tighter than previous standards and are intended to improve health protection for at-risk groups. In conjunction with the strengthening of the NAAQS, the EPA was planning to expand the existing lead monitoring network to ensure monitors are assessing air quality in areas that might violate the new standard.

World Mine Production, Reserves, and Reserve Base: Reserves estimates for Australia, Canada, and the United States were revised based on information released by producers in the respective countries.

World Resources: In recent years, significant lead resources have been demonstrated in association with zinc and/or silver or copper deposits in Australia, China, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, and the United States (Alaska). Identified lead resources of the world total more than 1.5 billion tons.

Substitutes: Substitution of plastics has reduced the use of lead in building construction, electrical cable covering, cans, and containers. Aluminum, iron, plastics, and tin compete with lead in other packaging and protective coatings, and tin has replaced lead in solder for new or replacement potable water systems in the United States. In the electronics industry, there has been a move towards lead-free solders with varying compositions of tin, bismuth, silver, and copper.

(e) Estimated. E Net exporter.
(NA)Not available; included in “Other countries.” — Zero.
(1)No tariff for Mexico and Canada for item shown.

U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2009