Reviewed September 2026 against USGS Mineral Commodity Report (April 2025) and World Population Review country-production rankings.

Jump to the calculator →

China mined an estimated 1.9 million metric tons of lead in 2024, more than six times the United States’ 300,000 metric tons, per World Population Review’s country rankings. Lead traded at $1,905 per metric ton on the London Metal Exchange as of September 4, 2026. Below: who the largest lead mining companies actually are, how US production breaks down month to month, and a durable method for checking these numbers yourself once they move.

Lead Mining: Scale and Why It Matters

Lead mining supplies the metal behind lead-acid batteries, radiation shielding, ammunition, and grid-storage systems. Demand has not gone away with the shift to lithium-ion technology — lead-acid remains the dominant chemistry for vehicle starter batteries and backup power worldwide. Understanding which mining companies and countries actually produce this metal, and at what scale, matters for procurement teams, investors screening lead mining stocks, and anyone comparing the best lead mining operations against each other.

The short version: China dominates global lead mine production, the United States is a distant but active second producer, and pricing runs on the London Metal Exchange (LME) in US dollars per metric ton. Every figure in this article carries its source and date so you can check whether it has moved.

Lead Mining Companies: Who Produces the Most

“Best lead mining” companies get judged on three things: production scale, ore grade and recovery efficiency, and how they manage the environmental load of a metal that is, itself, a regulated toxin. A lead mining company operating at scale in 2026 has to clear all three bars, not just the first one.

China and the United States: The Two Production Engines

China’s 1.9 million metric tons of mined lead in 2024 comes overwhelmingly from large state-linked and provincial mining groups working polymetallic lead-zinc deposits, concentrated in Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, and Hunan provinces. World Population Review’s country rankings (worldpopulationreview.com) is the citable source for this figure — it compiles national production data annually, with full-year figures for a given year typically available in the following year’s Q1 update.

The United States, at 300,000 metric tons for 2024 per the same source, produces lead almost entirely as a byproduct of primary lead mining in Missouri’s Southeast Missouri Lead District (the “Viburnum Trend”), plus recovered lead from secondary (recycled battery) sources nationwide. The USGS Mineral Commodity Report for April 2025 is the authoritative monthly breakdown of that split — see the next section.

Named Producers

Publicly identifiable lead-producing operations include Missouri’s Viburnum Trend mines (historically operated under Doe Run Company ownership) and Bunker Hill Mining Corp, which reopened its idled Idaho silver-lead-zinc mine and is the most visible newly active US primary lead producer as of this review. The research base for this article does not include audited annual production tonnage, revenue, or market-share figures for individual public lead producers such as Southern Copper, SSR Mining, or Americas Gold and Silver — those numbers exist in each company’s own SEC 10-K or annual report filings, not in a single public dataset, and should be pulled directly from investor-relations pages before citing a specific tonnage or revenue figure for any one of them.

US Lead Mining: Current Production Breakdown

The most granular public data on US lead mining comes from the US Geological Survey’s Mineral Commodity Reports, published monthly. The April 2025 report (USGS, mis-202504-lead.pdf) breaks production into two distinct streams that get conflated in casual reporting:

• Primary mine production: 22,200 metric tons in April 2025 — lead extracted directly from ore, mainly Missouri’s Viburnum Trend.
• Secondary (refined) production: 89,000 metric tons in April 2025 — lead recovered from recycled sources, chiefly spent automotive batteries.

That ratio, roughly four parts secondary to one part primary in a single month, is the real structure of the US lead supply. Anyone searching “lead mining” and picturing US output as coming mostly from ore is picturing the wrong industry — most American lead is recycled, not mined new.

On trade flows for the same period, the US exported 43,400 metric tons of lead concentrate cumulatively from January through April 2025, and imported 173,000 metric tons of unwrought lead over the same four months, per the same USGS report. That gap — importing roughly four times what it exports in concentrate — reflects the US relying on refined lead imports to supplement domestic secondary recovery rather than expanding primary mine capacity.

This report is a monthly release. The current month’s figures will differ from April 2025’s — USGS republishes at usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center roughly five to six weeks after each month closes. If you need this quarter’s number, go there directly rather than reusing the figures above past their vintage.

The Largest Lead Mine in the World

Global lead production concentrates in large polymetallic (lead-zinc-silver) deposits rather than single-metal lead mines — lead is rarely the sole payable metal at scale. China’s provincial mining groups collectively account for the 1.9 million metric ton national total cited above, more than any single-mine figure published in the research base for this review can attribute to one operation. The research gathered for this article does not include a verified, individually-sourced production figure for one named “largest lead mine” — claims of a specific single-mine record should be checked against that mine’s own operator disclosures or a national geological survey (for the US, USGS; internationally, each country’s mines ministry or equivalent) rather than repeated from secondary aggregator sites that rarely cite primary production data.

What can be stated with a source: Australia’s Mount Isa complex in Queensland remains one of the most cited large-scale lead-zinc-silver operations globally for its integration of automated drilling and real-time ore-tracking systems, and it operates within Australia’s Queensland environmental permitting framework, which sets some of the stricter tailings and emissions standards among major lead-producing jurisdictions. For deeper background on how ore-processing technique choices affect water use at these operations, see advanced ore-processing methods.

Lead Mining Stocks: What to Check Before You Buy

Investors searching “lead mining stocks” are usually looking for pure-play lead exposure, which barely exists — almost every publicly traded lead producer mines it as a byproduct of zinc, silver, or copper operations. Before treating any company as a “lead stock,” check four things directly from primary sources rather than aggregator summaries:

• Revenue mix by metal: Pull the segment breakdown from the company’s most recent 10-K (US filers) or annual report. A company can be majority zinc-revenue and still get labeled a “lead miner” in casual coverage.
• Reserve life: Reported in the company’s NI 43-101 (Canada) or S-K 1300 (US) technical report, not in press releases.
• Exposure to LME pricing: Lead priced at $1,905/metric ton on September 4, 2026 per Metalcharts (metalcharts.org/lead-price), against $1,842.52/metric ton in July 2026 per IMARC Group’s lead pricing report (imarcgroup.com) — a roughly 3.4% move in under two months. Check whether the company sells at spot or under offtake contracts with fixed floors.
• Jurisdiction risk: Permitting timelines and environmental rules for lead — a regulated heavy metal — differ sharply by country; Bunker Hill Mining Corp’s Idaho reopening (bunkerhillmining.com) is the clearest currently-public example of a US-jurisdiction primary lead restart to study for permitting timeline.

Comparative Table: Lead Mining Companies and Output

The table below separates what is directly sourced from what requires a company-specific pull, so you are not left guessing which numbers to trust.

Lead Concentrate Revenue Calculator

Use current LME lead price and your own concentrate tonnage and grade to estimate contained-metal revenue before smelter deductions.

Assumes a simple payable-metal model with no treatment charges, refining charges, penalty elements, or transport deductions. Actual smelter contracts subtract treatment/refining charges and may apply price participation clauses — use this for a rough gross estimate only, not a contract quote.

Leading Innovators in Mineral Solutions

Separate from lead-specific production data, the mineral solutions space more broadly is being reshaped by companies applying AI-driven ore sorting, satellite-based site monitoring, and blockchain traceability across commodities including lead, diamond, and copper. On the diamond side, sensor-based sorting adoption is documented in-depth in Farmonaut’s piece on diamond mining technology and in coverage of the largest diamond mine operations. For lead and base-metal specific technology and regulatory trends, see lead mining trends and challenges, and for silver-diamond crossover producers, largest silver and diamond mining companies.

Satellite Monitoring for Lead Mine Operators

Lead mining carries tighter environmental compliance stakes than most base metals — tailings containment and dust control are directly tied to public-health regulation, not just ESG reporting. Satellite and fleet-data tools reduce the manual burden of that compliance work:

• Real-time site monitoring: Continuous imagery-based tracking of tailings ponds, disturbed area extent, and vegetation stress around a lead mine perimeter.
• Fleet management: Coordinating haul trucks and drilling rigs across a site — see satellite-based fleet management for how this reduces fuel use and idle time.
• Product traceability: Tracking lead concentrate from mine to smelter to battery manufacturer for supply-chain audits — detailed at blockchain-based traceability tools.
• Carbon footprint tracking: Required for an increasing share of smelter and OEM procurement contracts — see carbon footprinting solutions.
• Site and resource administration: Coordinating multi-site operations through large-scale resource and site management tools.

For developers integrating this data directly into internal systems, Farmonaut publishes a Mining API alongside full developer documentation.

How to Verify These Numbers Yourself

Every figure in this article expires. Here is the exact method to get a current one, independent of this article:

1. US monthly production, imports, exports: Go to usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center and open the current month’s Lead Mineral Commodity Report PDF. USGS publishes it roughly five to six weeks after month-end, so the newest report is always one to two months behind the calendar.
2. Global country-level annual rankings: Check worldpopulationreview.com’s lead production rankings. Full-year data compiles with a lag — expect a given year’s complete figures by the following year’s first quarter.
3. Spot price: LME lead trades daily. Check metalcharts.org/lead-price for the live quote in USD per metric ton, or kitco.com as a second source to cross-check.
4. Company-specific production or financials: Go directly to the company’s investor-relations page for its most recent 10-K, annual report, or quarterly production update — never rely on a secondary aggregator for a specific company’s tonnage or revenue claim.

This four-step check applies whether you land here in 2026 or several years later — the sources update on fixed schedules even when this page does not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Subscribe to Farmonaut: Affordable Satellite Insights

Ready to monitor your mining operation with satellite-driven data?

Manage mining site operations from any device — see mining site management for the full workflow, or review API developer documentation to integrate directly. For ore recovery efficiency gains applicable to lead-zinc operations, see ore sorting for mining efficiency and drilling and blasting techniques.

Conclusion: Tracking a Market That Moves Monthly

Lead mining is not one static ranking — it is China at roughly 1.9 million metric tons and the US at 300,000 metric tons on the country level (2024 figures), a US supply chain that runs four parts recycled lead to one part newly mined, and a spot price that shifted from $1,842.52 to $1,905 per metric ton between July and early September 2026. The companies and figures worth trusting are the ones you can trace to USGS, World Population Review, or a company’s own filings — not the ones repeated without a source. Use the verification steps above the next time you need a number this page cannot give you fresh.