Logistics: Double plus ungood news. EPA destroys last US lead smelting business.
End of an Era: Last U.S. Lead Smelter to Close in December
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.
At this time, it's unclear if Doe Run or another company will open a new lead smelter in the United States that can meet the more stringent lead air quality standards by using more modern smelting methods. What is clear is that after the Herculaneum smelter closes its doors in December, entirely domestic manufacture of conventional ammunition, from raw ore to finished cartridge, will be impossible.
But hey, I guess we can always buy lead from the Chinese where pollution controls are NON-EXISTENT, right? What could go wrong with that?
13 comments:
Lead smelting is a nasty business, like many other extraction technologies, but it seems to me national security demands that there be domestic sources for key metals. As we push sourcing offshore, usually into the arms of the Chinese, we are becoming less capable of fighting a long war - and the really important wars in history lasted years, not days or weeks. (I'm not a counting a nuclear war, which probably would be brief.)
What other metals/materials can bullets be made from?
This MAY be more disinformation making its way through the blog-o spear. Reports indicate that many smelters are still in operation. This story is BY NO MEANS confiermed.
So, that's why DHS was stocking up !!
I guess it is possible to turn lead into gold afterall, huh?
Bullets are the least of our worries when Doe Run shuts down the Herculaneum line. Its also the source of high-purity lead absolutely essential in manufacturing the extremely durable and long-lived batteries used for such essentials as stand-by power supporting computer and tele-com networks. Some of us are smart enough to use them for our vehicles.
Push comes to shove we can shoot damn near anything, but we can't reliably power essential systems with an inferior substitute ! >Jeff
HELLO ......
"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."
IT is not disinformation you missed it.
Not too long ago I saw an article about a tour of the LC ammunition plant. Perhaps the most striking thing about the article was the number of single source critical components used. Nitric acid (for making nitrocellulose was one, lead from reclaimed batteries was another, and a chemical used in the paste that becomes priming pellets was a third.
The article may have been in Shotgun News. At any rate a quick search on the web did not locate it.
As long as there are junk yards, I'll be able to defend me and mine. On the national level, as far as defense is concerned, when DoD wakes up to the fact that they are being sold out by a traitor in the WH, maybe they'll start the civil war.
EPA has done this to a whole slew of industries over the last 30 years whilst most of the country has been asleep, riding their jet skis and drinking beer in front of their flat screen TVs.
I worked in this industry for 2 decades, and they have single handedly killed not only smelting, but foundries, plating, tubular parts manufacturing, and countless other "dirty" industries that are now supplied almost exclusively from China, Mexico or other garden spots.
Funny thing, no one was interested in what I was telling them over the many years this sort of thing was going on. Everyone thought they were going to stay gainfully employed in "marketing", day trading, office work, or some other frivolously useless profession. Now that ya'll are finally getting concerned, guess what? It's bloody well too late.
Lead is not just for bullets. Every cell phone/laptop/tablet etc has a lead battery. Now that us serfs have to compete w/the gov't over supply& prices, we're screwed. Take any ammo manufacturer that is asked by a major retailer for a volume discount. Then uncle barry says money is no object and we want your next 4-6 months of productivity. And barry is outbidding you w/YOUR money!
Which makes bullets/projectiles, ammunition etc., imports, subject to tariffs and treaties......
Anon at 1:38 -- laptops and cell phones have lithium batteries, not lead-acid. Losing this smelter is still a problem, though.
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