In 1913 all the lead-ore production of Algeria was from the Department of Constantine, and amounted to 21,442 tons. Practically the whole production was by French companies.
Lead ore is produced in several scattered districts in France, chiefly in the south. Among the mines are the Chaliac et Chassezac (Ardeche) mines of the Société Metallurgique et Minière des Cevennes, producing 2,200 metric tons in 1913; the mines of the Société Civile des Mines des Malines; La Londe mine of the Société des Mines des Bormettes; that of the Société des Mines de Bleymard, producing 2,470 tons of galena ore in 1913; and the Pierrefitte (Haute Pyrenees), Peybrune, and Bulard de Sentein-Saint Lary (Ariege) mines. All of these appear to be French companies, except the Pierrefitte, which is English controlled.
In Burma, the chief deposits are those of the Bawdwin mines, in the Northern Shan States (Burma), now connected with the Burma Railway from Rangoon. The ore bodies of present interest are nearly vertical shoots in a feldspathic grit (rhyolitic tuff or silicified rhyolite) and rhyolite series. The Chinaman and the smaller Shan ore body are believed to have been one, though now separated by faulting. Estimated reserves on December 31, 1917, were 4,033,000 tons of lead-zinc ore assaying 24.7 ounces of silver, 27.4 per cent. lead, 19.1 per cent. zinc, and 0.4 per cent. copper; and 105,000 tons of copper-silver ore assaying 21.0 ounces of silver, 19.9 per cent. lead, 8.8 per cent. zinc, and 8.9 per cent. copper. Since then development has considerably increased these reserves. In addition there is estimated to be 1,600,000 tons of low-grade ore averaging 5.1 ounces of silver, 7.5 per cent. lead, 4.8 per cent. zinc, and 0.2 per cent. copper per ton, with excellent prospects of larger developments. A large tonnage of gossan outcrop ore containing 4 or 5 ounces silver, 4 to 5 per cent. lead, and a little zinc is cheaply mined and available as siliceous flux. The essential constituents of the ores are galena and sphalerite with a little pyrite and chalcopyrite. All of the ore is argentiferous.
The lead and zinc concentrates are available for the customary methods of smelting. A zinc-distilling and sulphuric acid plant is being constructed at Sakchi, with the aid of the Indian government, to treat the table zinc concentrates. Its initial capacity of 25,000 tons of concentrates is expected to be increased to 75,000 tons. The company operates a lead smelter at Nam-Tu, 11 miles from the mines, using a mixture of ore and ancient slags. Treatment of the middlings by the Ganlin process is proposed and a 100-ton unit is under construction at Avonmouth, England. The Bawdwin deposits may be expected to be an important factor in the world’s production of lead in the immediate future. They are owned by the Burma Mines, Ltd., an English corporation representing the R. Tilden Smith-Govett-Hoover interests and some American capital.
The lead production of Peru is largely in the form of ancient high-lead slags from the Cerro de Pasco district, Department of Junin, shipped to plants of the American Smelting & Refining Co. in the United States. Lead occurs as a minor constituent of copper deposits.
The domestic lead-ore deposits of Japan are all owned and operated by Japanese. During the war Australian concentrates and Chinese ore were imported and smelted, 10,666 short tons of the former, carrying 56 per cent. lead, during the fiscal year 1915-16, and 9,829 short tons of the latter during the year 1916. The Fujita company, mining in Japan, Korea, and Formosa, produces 382 short tons of lead yearly. Its principal mine is the Kosaka, at the northern end of Hondo, the main island of Japan. The ore is a complex sulphide mixture of lead, zinc, iron, and copper minerals. The annual output of this mine is about 335 short tons of lead. The Mitsui Mining Co., Ltd., is the largest producer, its output in 1915 having been 3,561, and in 1916, 8,098 short tons of pig lead. This is derived wholly from the Kamioka zinc-lead mine, in the Province of Hida, on a contact metamorphic deposit in limestone lenses enclosed in Archean gneiss near a quartz porphyry contact.
The only deposit exploited in Egypt is that known to the ancients, Gebel Rosas, now operated by the French company, Compagnie Française des Mines de Laurium. As regards the former empire of Russia, the lead production of Russian Poland and the Caucasus Mountains is small, the output in 1913 coming chiefly from the Caucasus Mountains and being made by the Elboruss Co., and the Compagnie d’Alagir (Belgian).
In the Altai Mountains, in Siberia, a zinc-lead-silver deposit, the Zmeinogorsk, formerly belonging to the Russian Mining Corporation (British), is now owned by a Russian company, Altai Mines, Ltd., though part of the capital is probably British. The Nerchinski district, in eastern Siberia, comprises many known deposits. The Akatonevski, Kadaenski, Algachinski and Klichinski deposits are veins, whereas many of the Zerentniski, Gasimoura Valley, Koultoumski and Maltzevski are lenticular masses of disseminated ore. In the Kadaenski deposits two massive disseminated ore bodies occur in dolomite between two veins. These deposits were controlled by the Imperial Cabinet, and their exploitation was being seriously considered by British and American capital shortly before the revolution. The deposits of largest present importance in Siberia are those of the Ridder Mining Co., controlled by the Irtysh Corporation of London, which has developed two mines, the Ridder and the Sokolni, on the same mineralized zone. The deposits are replacements by complex sulphide ore of members of a conformable series of slates, tuffs, and igneous sills. In 1916 the reserves were estimated at 945,000 tons of a grade of 31.2 per cent. zinc, 18.1 per cent. lead, 1.5 per cent. copper, 9.7 ounces of silver, and 0.47 ounces of gold; and also 2,229,000 tons averaging 6.7 per cent. zinc, 3.5 per cent. lead, 0.5 per cent. copper, 1.7 ounces of silver, and 0.7 ounces of gold per ton. Other known mineralized zones have not been developed, but the possibilities of the property are immense, being limited chiefly by general political and economic conditions.
A small quantity of lead is produced in Bulgaria from a few small deposits containing intimate mixtures of lead, copper and zinc minerals; usually either zinc or copper predominate.
The most important lead deposit in Sweden is the Sala, in Vestmanland, where irregular masses and veins of galena and blende with minor amounts of pyrite, etc. occur in limestone. Similar deposits occur at Lofas and Guldmedshyttan.