The recent closure of the 150 year old Doe Run lead smelting plant in Herculaneum, Missouri caused quite a stir. Turns out the Doe Run plant – built close to the Lake City Ammunition facility on which a large portion of the military supply chain depends – has developed a cheaper, cleaner and safer alternative to traditional lead smelting.
The necessary infrastructure for the new process will cost only $30 million as opposed the $150 million that would have been needed to upgrade the existing smelting facility to meet new EPA standards. Likewise, the new process will be cheaper, have a far diminished environmental impact and offer greater efficiency at a “99 percent versus 95 percent” extraction rate.
With world demand estimated to almost double over the next decade, it appears that U.S. lead manufacturing is in for a bright future.
http://www.mining.com/lead-smelting-going-green-with-new-technology-from-doe-run/