Posted on 10/27/2013 9:12:13 AM PDT by Nachum
In December, the final primary lead smelter in the United States will close. The lead smelter, located in Herculaneum, Missouri, and owned and operated by the Doe Run Company, has existed in the same location since 1892.
The Herculaneum smelter is currently the only smelter in the United States which can produce lead bullion from raw lead ore that is mined nearby in Missouri's extensive lead deposits, giving the smelter its "primary" designation. The lead bullion produced in Herculaneum is then sold to lead product producers, including ammunition manufactures for use in conventional ammunition components such as projectiles, projectile cores, and primers. Several "secondary" smelters, where lead is recycled from products such as lead acid batteries or spent ammunition components, still operate in the United States.
Doe Run made significant efforts to reduce lead emissions from the smelter, but in 2008 the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued new National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead that were 10 times tighter than the previous standard. Given the new lead air quality standard, Doe Run made the decision to close the Herculaneum smelter.
Whatever the EPA's motivation when creating the new lead air quality standard, increasingly restrictive regulation of lead is likely to affect the production and cost of traditional ammunition. Just this month, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that will ban lead ammunition for all hunting in California. The Center for Biological Diversity has tried multiple times to get similar regulations at the federal level by trying, and repeatedly failing, to get the EPA to regulate conventional ammunition under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at nraila.org ...
Truthfully, there are several minerals that you just can’t mine cheap or easy, and make for dreadful pollution.
I remember seeing a picture from a South American mercury mine, in which once a month workers would have to sit in a wooden box lined with 100 Watt light bulbs, to sweat as much mercury out of their system as possible. They still died young, with few making it to their 50’s.
Watch, the Mob and Gangs will be running illegal smelting facilities....
The goes Laz’s slag removal job.
Next the EPA will restrict lead imports.
Who is John Galt?
My brother-in-law used to canvass service stations for discarded lead tire-weights.He hs buckets full of them.He could see the future!
But if we are going to have things like anti-pollution requirements then we need to raise the import tariffs for countries that do not or we throw our people out of work and destroy our own industries.
How about spent uranium? used in tank ammo. /s
Galena, IL used to be a big lead town, U. S. Grant’s hometown. Been there
Get it while you can!
Actually, I might feel more secure relying on china for ammo rather than the whims of the obviously anti 2nd ammendment crowd in dc.
Capitol Hill is easily the MOST polluted area in the US. It has done far more harm to America and her citizens than anything that any lead smelting operation could possibly do.
The White House is the second most polluted area in the US ...
Tyranny is far more deadly than lead ...
“Too hard to ban lead in bullets and shot pellets, so regulate the only lead smelter out of business.”
But what about all the lead they need for the batteries for all their “clown car” Toyota Piouses, and Honda Twits?”
Lead is also used in soldering electronic parts. Even though there has been a move towards “no lead solder” in the electronics industry, it does not work in certain applications, such as medical devices, military, avionics, wastewater treatment and underwater oil exploration.
Uh, from the article excerpt above:
Just this month, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that will ban lead ammunition for all hunting in California.
Hmmm. So lead smelted lead refined is bad, but galena, the rock ore that Pb is extracted from, is just fine in situ?
Well, Maybe one ought to check out the free lead and leachate lead associated with the rock in the ground before simply declaring lead smelting a “hazard” while the ground adjacent is , well, made of lead bearing rock....
So much for science and PC spin.
The price of silver has been down for quite a while...good enough for the Lone Ranger, good enough for me!
‘swhy lead was removed from gasoline.
You could look it up...
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