View Full Version : Last US Lead Smelter Plant to Close
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/28/end-of-an-era-last-u-s-lead-smelter-to-close-in-december/
So am I to understand that the US military will now be non-barry amendment compliant with their ammunition purchases? God bless the US Gov, may their labodamy fix their mental disease. Back on your heads, breaks over.....
Maybe this is why DHS bought all that ammo.
Increasingly agencies like the EPA and laws like the ADA are causing more and more to consider what the most cost effective way of doing business.......close the doors.
FlagDayNCO
10-30-2013, 08:26
There is quite a business on recycled lead, though these facilities are being shuttered at an alarming rate as well.
The National EPA is to blame for much of this, but look also towards State and local EPA related circus shows.
Pretty soon, it will be illegal to store lead on private property.
We'll have to come up with a CCW flame thrower.
I remember Jim Rogers( a HUGELY successful contrarian investor) was big on lead about a decade ago.
One of the reasons why is because lead is so dirty and nasty no lead plant would EVER be approved again in the US.
Once gone, never coming back.
I remember Jim Rogers( a HUGELY successful contrarian investor) was big on lead about a decade ago.
One of the reasons why is because lead is so dirty and nasty no lead plant would EVER be approved again in the US.
Once gone, never coming back.
Jim "Bow Tie" Rogers is a partner of George Soros. He's scum! Even when he's right.
Pat
Jim "Bow Tie" Rogers is a partner of George Soros. He's scum! Even when he's right.
Pat
According to his bio they worked together on Quantum Fund until about 35 years ago.
They haven't been partners since that I'm aware of.
I ran into him very briefly in late 2000 or early 2001 OCONUS when he was working on a book.
Before and after that time I know he has had a pretty consistent record of offering analysis that has been amongst the earliest and amongst the more accurate on the dot com crash, warning of the real estate bubble that followed, the long boom in commodity prices, as well as the insanity of US fiscal/monetary policy.
I'm certainly no fan of Soros.......
Nor am I a cheerleader of Rogers, but when a guy has a Hall of Fame batting average better than an A-hole like Ty Cobb......he might be worth paying attention to....even if he is an A-hole too.
As best I can tell Rogers has been pretty clinical in his assessment of the fundamental problems with the US political/fiscal/monetary climate and has been an equal opportunity complainer(and apolitical as best I can tell)......whereas Soros has portrayed a clearly slanted political agenda and willingness to embed himself in the corrupt US special interest lobbying arena.
Back to the point of lead smelters....IIRC they may be fewer active lead smelters on the planet than fingers on the human hand.
With about 80% of global lead production consumed in the production of batteries(playing an increasingly important role in energy storage in an attempt to shift away from petroleum) combined with a shift towards about 60% of total lead production coming from Asia(China lead...no pun intended), could lead possess some strategic commercial implications.
IIRC there was a fair bit of subterfuge during the Cold War for the US to acquire sufficient exotic metals like titanium from the Soviet Union as well as other exotic metals such as chromium from Africa....is it possible a more mundane metal like lead(as well as another battery component such as Lithium) could be problematic for US industrial and economic revival?
Flagg,
I was just stating my disgust about JR. I've used his investment advice, successfully, in the past. But, I came to wonder if his contrarian success may have been due to his close association with a criminally convicted market manipulator.
I agree about the loss of lead smelters, considering our life here depends on flooded lead acid batteries and, perhaps, lead bullets. ;)
Pat
Australia and Peru have the ore and the smelters.
Richard
Australia and Peru have the ore and the smelters.
Richard
Absolutely....although it will be interesting to see if Australia eventually goes the way of the US as well....as their OSH(A) and environmental regulations are extremely strict.....possible it could come under threat in the future.
But with the closure of each plant, it makes the remaining ones that much more potentially lucrative.
GratefulCitizen
11-03-2013, 11:15
But with the closure of each plant, it makes the remaining ones that much more potentially lucrative.
Yep.
Mineral production is limited by economic constraints.
Price increases, marginal revenue increases.
Marginal revenue increases make producing that next ounce profitable; supplies increase.
The fungibility of money is a powerful thing.
Never ran out of rhodium.
EPA should have closed this f@&$$& place a LONG time ago.
I live just a couple of miles from the Doe Run smelter. My sons high school is in rock throwing distance of the lead contaminant spitting stacks of the plant. Literally 100-200 yds from the plants fence. There is an entire neighborhood of long emptied homes that are cordoned off, a ghost town that sits empty, covered in lead contaminants from being in the shadow of the plant for years.
There was talk a while back about opening a new generation of smelter that could operate without generating the pollutants that this plant spews. But naturally, it was quite expensive and the deal fell through. I would have no problem with an environmentally friendly unit being built but this one needs to go. ;)
From the story
"...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..."
Sucks to live next to it. Sucks to have your kids go to a school next to it. Sucks to have parts of the town off limits due to lead pollution.
But that is a choice everyone in the local area made. Yeah, it sucks for the town and local area.
So now the only Primary Lead Smelter in the US is closed.
So how does it all balance out?
Are the "secondary" smelters next?
http://sierrabullets.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/sierra-responds-how-will-the-closure-of-the-lead-smelting-plant-affect-sierra-bullets/
They don't seem too concerned as they didn't use this plant anyway.
This article on the jpfo goes into some detail as to why this isn't a big issue (I normally don't crosspost JPFO articles as they tend to be quite alarmist, so when they are non-alarmist it becomes quite notable):
http://jpfo.org/articles-assd03/lead-smelter-closes-02.htm
According to Daniel Hill, Operations Manager at Mayco Industries—"the largest fabricator of lead based products, other than batteries, in the United States" including lead shot and the lead wire used by many bullet manufacturers— roughly validates these numbers. Hill said that least 80% of lead used in the United States secondary market comes from recycled batteries and another 7%-9% of lead on the market comes from other scrap sources. Only 10% of the lead in the U.S. comes from mining.
The Reaper
11-25-2013, 18:05
This article on the jpfo goes into some detail as to why this isn't a big issue (I normally don't crosspost JPFO articles as they tend to be quite alarmist, so when they are non-alarmist it becomes quite notable):
http://jpfo.org/articles-assd03/lead-smelter-closes-02.htm
How long do you think it will be before the EPA goes after those sources as well?
TR
A fluorescent light bulb with pinch of mercury is considered eco friendly these days, and a bit of lead is evil unless it is comes by way of Chinese toys.
Go figure.
How long do you think it will be before the EPA goes after those sources as well?
TR
I'm pretty sure we have right up until the moment that sealed lead acid batteries become obsolete.
Probably not even then. Lead is used everywhere, and recycled everywhere.
Liberal gun control activists are a victim of their own success here; creating a lead shortage to enforce a bullet ban is no longer in the cards.