54 MINERALS YEAREOOK

Salient statistics of the lead industry in the United States, i931—8P~
 1931 1932

Production of refined primary lead:
 From domestic ores short tons. 390,260 255,337
 From foreign ores and base bullion do~ 52,504 33,024
   442,764 288,361

Recovery of secondary leadS
 As pig lead do.~ 128,800 128,000
 In alloys do... 105,900 70,300
   234,700 198,300
Total production of pig lead (primary and secondary) do~ 571,564 416,361
Imports (general):
  Lead in base bullion do.... 32,320 13,462
  Lead in ore do~ 20,888 21,001
Exports of refined pig lead do~_. 21,665 23,516
Refined primary lead available for consumption ~ 410,606 257,669
Estimated consumption of primary and secondary lead do~ 567,700 400,000
Prices per pound of refined leadat New York:
  Highest monthly average cents.. 4.80 3.75
  Lowest monthly average do.... 3.79 2.73
  Average for year do.. -- 4.24 3.18
  ~uuiauiuu a,, euu u ~. do.. 3.75 3.00
Mine production of recoverable lead short tons... 404,622 1 290,911
  Southeastern Missouri district percent of total.. 39 40
  Utah do.~. 20 21
  Idaho do...... 25 24
   loplin (tn-State) region do..~ 5 6
  Allot~ier do...... 11 9
World smelter production of lead metric tons... 1,401,060 1,157,000
  United States percent of total~ 27 22
  Mexico do..~ 16 12
  Australia do....~. 11 15
  Canada do~.. 9 10
  Spain do~.. 8 9
  All other do....~~ 29 32


I Subject to revision.

Capital has not been available for technical improvements in either mining
or metallurgical practice due to forced economies and to the fact that most
plants have a larger capacity than is needed.
 The lead production of the United States, compared with world prodi~ction
and with that of copper and zinc, is shown in figure 1 on page 1.
 The similarity of the graphs in trend and tonnage is noteworthy. A study
of these and of the production tables shows a relatively greater decrease
in the lead production of the United States compared with world output than
in that of copper and zinc. Curtailment in lead output in foreign countries
in 1932 was only 12 percent compared with a 33 percent decrease in the output
of the United States exclusive of refined lead from foreign base bullion.
The reason is that foreign consumption declined only 10 percent as against
a decrease of 31 percent in the United States. Except the United States,
Mexico shows the greatest reduction in output—84,000 metric tons—followed
by Poland with a 20,000-ton decrease, while the lead production in Australia
was increased 25,000 tons due to addition of the Mount Isa output. In Italy
the 1932 production increased 6,800 tons.
 Prices.—The average New York market price for lead in 1932 was 3.18
cents per pound compared with 4.24 in 1931 and 6.83 in 1929. There was a
period of extremely low prices in July, when the quotation reached an all-time
low of 2.65. Although prices rose to 3.60 in August, at the end of the year
they were again down to 3 cent~. St. Louis monthly prices were 0.10 to 0.21
cents below the New York quotations.