List of the largest lead producers

Most important producing countries of lead ore

The list of the largest lead producers contains tables and graphics with information on the subject of lead .

overview

In 2018, the People's Republic of China (2.10 million tons), Australia (432,000 tons), Peru (289,000 tons), the USA (280,000 tons) and Mexico (240,000 tons) were the world's most important lead mining nations. These five states together had a share of 73 percent of the 4.56 million tons extracted worldwide. In Europe there are important mining areas in Russia , Sweden and Ireland . Extraction has ceased in some industrialized countries that used to be among the largest lead producers, including France (1992), Germany (1993), Spain (2004) and Japan (2006). Mining areas in Germany were in the Jülich Börde, in the Harz (Goslar / Rammelsberg ), in Saxony (Freiberg) and in Ramsbeck / Westphalia ( mining in the Sauerland ).

Lead ore occurs in chemical compounds as lead sulfide ( lead luster ). This mineral is also the major commercial source for the extraction of new lead.

In 2020, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the economically minable reserves to be 90 million tons worldwide. The largest deposits are in Australia (36 million tons), the People's Republic of China (18 million tons), Russia (6.4 million tons), Peru (6.3 million tons) and Mexico (5.6 million tons). Tons). In Europe, Poland, Sweden and Russia are the countries with the largest abundance. The static range of the reserves is almost 20 years.

The most important producers of refined lead (metallurgical lead with 99.9 percent purity) in 2018 were the People's Republic of China (5.11 million tons), the USA (1.30 million tons), South Korea (901,000 tons), and India (620,000 tons ) and Great Britain (354,300 tons). These states owned 69 percent of the 12 million tons produced worldwide. Other major producers of refined lead in Europe are Italy, Spain and France.

The largest consumers of lead are the USA, Japan, Germany and the People's Republic of China. Consumption is heavily dependent on the economy in the automotive industry, as around 60 percent of global demand is for the production of starter batteries. Another 20 percent is processed in the chemical industry. The most important source of lead today is the recycling of old lead products. The world market prices for lead have risen since the beginning of the 21st century because of the strong demand in the People's Republic of China.

Reserves

The United States Geological Survey distinguishes between the following two categories:

• The reserve base is that portion of an identified resource that meets the specific minimum physical and chemical criteria for current mining and production practices, including grade , quality , thickness and depth . The publication of data on the stock base was stopped by the USGS in 2009.
• The reserves are that part of the supply base that could be economically extracted or produced at a given time. The term does not have to mean that extraction systems are installed and working. Reserves only contain exploitable substances.

The reserves of the countries with the greatest production are listed here.

Figures in thousands of tons (2018)

rank	country	advancement	Reserves	Stock base (2009)
1.	Australia	432	36,000	59,000
2.	People's Republic of China	2,100	18,000	36,000
3.	Russia	220	6,400	k. A.
4th	Peru	289	6,300	7,000
5.	Mexico	240	5,600	6,000
6th	United States	280	5,000	19,000
7th	India	192	2,500	k. A.
8th.	Kazakhstan	86	2,000	k. A.
9.	Bolivia	112	1,600	k. A.
10.	Sweden	65	1,100	2,000
11.	Turkey	76	860	k. A.
	Other countries	468	5,000	k. A.
	world	4,560	90,000	170,000

advancement

By country

The following table contains all countries whose annual production in 2018 was over 10,000 tons. The copper content of ores and concentrates is given. All figures relate to the states within their current borders.

Figures in thousands of tons

Rank (2018)	country	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2016	2017	2018
1.	People's Republic of China	100	160	315	660	1,981	2,337	2,300	2,280
2.	Australia	457	397	565	651	711	441	393	432
3.	Peru	157	189	188	271	262	314	307	289
4th	United States	519	550	497	465	369	346	310	260
5.	Mexico	177	146	177	138	192	242	243	231
6th	Russia	42	40	36	14th	97	217	210	215
7th	India	2	14th	26th	35	84	151	173	198
8th.	Bolivia	0	17th	20th	10	73	90	113	112
9.	Kazakhstan	326	311	281	39	35	71	111	87
10.	Poland	67	48	61	51	48	63	74	70
11.	Sweden	78	72	98	107	68	76	71	65
12.	Morocco	76	115	72	82	33	30th	38	50
13.	Iran	23	12	9	17th	32	47	48	48
14th	Tajikistan	4th	4th	3	2	4th	47	51	44
15th	North Macedonia	47	45	37	16	41	31	40	43
16.	South Africa	0	86	69	75	51	39	48	35
17th	Argentina	36	33	23	14th	23	30th	30th	31
18th	Turkey	6th	8th	18th	16	39	29	30th	30th
19th	Cuba	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	25th
20th	Bulgaria	96	100	45	14th	13	22nd	23	24
21st	Myanmar	8th	6th	2	1	7th	20th	46	21st
22nd	North Korea	70	100	60	22nd	20th	32	33	20th
23.	Nigeria	0	0	0	0	3	13	21st	18th
24.	Ireland	63	58	35	58	39	20th	17th	17th
25th	Canada	357	297	241	149	65	12	20th	14th
26th	Greece	11	22nd	26th	16	12	14th	13	14th
27.	Mongolia	0	0	0	0	0	5	7th	12
28.	Indonesia	0	0	0	0	0	5	8th	11
29	Spain	73	87	61	52	0	5	3	10
30th	Honduras	16	14th	4th	5	17th	4th	7th	10

World funding

The following table shows the world production of lead in thousands of tons.

Figures in thousands of tons

year Prod. 1900 749 1901 k. A. 1902 k. A. 1903 k. A. 1904 k. A. 1905 k. A. 1906 1040 1907 993 1908 1280 1909 1060 1910 1100 1911 1110 1912 1160 1913 1150 1914 k. A.

year Prod. 1915 k. A. 1916 k. A. 1917 k. A. 1918 k. A. 1919 764 1920 804 1921 783 1922 972 1923 1080 1924 1220 1925 1410 1926 k. A. 1927 1540 1928 1680 1929 1610

year Prod. 1930 1520 1931 1260 1932 1050 1933 1040 1934 1200 1935 1380 1936 1470 1937 k. A. 1938 1700 1939 1740 1940 k. A. 1941 k. A. 1942 k. A. 1943 k. A. 1944 k. A.

year Prod. 1945 1250 1946 1030 1947 1310 1948 1380 1949 1370 1950 1640 1951 1600 1952 1810 1953 1870 1954 2000 1955 2010 1956 2400 1957 2380 1958 2350 1959 2320

year Prod. 1960 2390 1961 2390 1962 2510 1963 2560 1964 2530 1965 2700 1966 2850 1967 2870 1968 3010 1969 3240 1970 3390 1971 3490 1972 3450 1973 3490 1974 3490

year Prod. 1975 3440 1976 3690 1977 3410 1978 3460 1979 3510 1980 3520 1981 3350 1982 3450 1983 3350 1984 3200 1985 3390 1986 3240 1987 3430 1988 3420 1989 3400

year Prod. 1990 3370 1991 3260 1992 3200 1993 2900 1994 2800 1995 2710 1996 2920 1997 3100 1998 3060 1999 3080 2000 3200 2001 3120 2002 2850 2003 3200 2004 3150

year Prod. 2005 3480 2006 3600 2007 3680 2008 3840 2009 3900 2010 4140 2011 4500 2012 5170 2013 5400 2014 4870 2015 4710 2016 4820 2017 4580 2018 4560

Refinery production

By country

The following table shows the refinery production of metallurgical lead (soft lead) with 99.9 percent purity in thousands of tons. All figures relate to the states within their current borders.

Figures in thousands of tons

Rank (2018)	country	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2016	2017	2018
1.	People's Republic of China	100	175	364	1,100	4.158	4,604	4,716	5.113
2.	United States	605	1,150	1,290	1,457	1,255	986	1,130	1,300
3.	South Korea	0	15th	63	219	328	813	807	801
4th	India	2	26th	39	57	367	528	573	620
5.	United Kingdom	44	325	329	328	301	375	354	354
6th	Mexico	180	184	235	233	257	341	343	344
7th	Germany	138	392	365	387	405	339	354	315
8th.	Canada	186	235	184	284	273	274	274	290
9.	Japan	175	305	327	312	267	240	239	240
10.	Australia	351	234	224	251	213	224	211	196
11.	Brazil	19th	85	57	50	115	176	192	192
12.	Spain	69	121	124	120	165	166	168	175
13.	Italy	54	134	171	234	150	187	174	168
14th	Poland	55	82	65	56	120	155	157	159
15th	Kazakhstan	352	560	504	206	103	134	147	155
16.	Belgium	106	128	107	119	121	142	136	143
17th	Russia	55	82	65	52	96	130	140	140
18th	Bulgaria	98	118	67	84	98	101	103	103
19th	Thailand	0	5	16	27	56	86	88	86
20th	Iran	0	0	10	42	75	86	90	85
21st	Sweden	43	47	76	78	59	74	78	76
22nd	France	120	219	270	263	71	70	70	70
23.	Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	18th	39	60	72	68
24.	Taiwan	0	17th	27	42	35	48	48	58
25th	Turkey	4th	3	9	9	42	58	58	58
26th	South Africa	0	35	31	46	51	54	56	56
27.	Indonesia	0	0	30th	18th	45	48	46	54
28.	Colombia	0	3	5	10	42	42	43	44
29	Czech Republic	0	0	0	29	36	43	43	43
30th	Argentina	38	42	20th	36	77	38	40	40
31.	Netherlands	0	28	44	21st	27	33	36	36
32.	Greece	14th	21st	0	6th	11	28	28	30th
33.	Malaysia	0	5	16	32	26th	28	30th	30th
34.	Ukraine	0	0	0	15th	72	28	34	30th
35.	Israel	0	0	0	13	26th	24	25th	29
36.	Austria	14th	18th	24	24	26th	25th	26th	27
37.	United Arab Emirates	0	0	2	2	2	22nd	25th	25th
38.	Romania	40	41	21st	24	11	17th	24	21st
39.	Ireland	0	7th	15th	9	19th	18th	18th	15th
40.	Chile	0	0	0	0	0	11	12	15th
41.	Serbia	0	0	0	0	0	6th	15th	14th
42.	Guatemala	0	0	0	0	18th	12	12	12
43.	Slovenia	0	0	0	15th	14th	12	12	12
44.	Morocco	25th	42	67	67	38	11	12	10
45.	Philippines	0	5	12	25th	30th	14th	10	10
46.	Portugal	1	6th	4th	6th	9	8th	10	10
47.	Venezuela	0	10	14th	21st	31	16	16	10
48.	Costa Rica	0	0	0	0	0	8th	10	10
49.	Lebanon	0	0	0	0	7th	10	10	10

By company

Portions of this article appear since 2004 is out of date to be .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

Listed are the company, the country in which the head office is located, the refinery production of primary lead in thousands of tons and the share of global production in percent.

Figures in thousands of tons (2004)

rank	Companies	country	amount	Percentage ownership %
1.	Quexco	United States	880	11.6
2.	Exide	United States	559	7.4
3.	Doe Run Company	United States	475	6.3
4th	Glencore	Switzerland	337	4.5
5.	Zinifex	Australia	281	3.7
6th	Korea Zinc	South Korea	200	2.6
7th	Yuguang	People's Republic of China	200	2.6
8th.	Penoles	Mexico	180	2.4
9.	Yuzhpoli metal	Kazakhstan	160	2.1
10.	Toho Zinc	Japan	150	2.0

Web links

• US Geological Survey
• British Geological Survey

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} United States Geological Survey: Lead Statistics and Information
2. ^ ^{A b c} British Geological Survey: World mineral statistics archive
3. ↑ United States Geological Survey: World Production since 1900
4. ↑ World Gold Council: Gold Report ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.