- Wirtz
The process manufacturing plants use to create lead is referred to as lead smelting. Lead smelting companies were once prevalent throughout the United States and other countries in the world, and lead is still required in a number of day-to-day tasks.
The Process of Smelting
Producing lead first begins with sintering. This is when lead ore gets put inside a sintering machine along with a number of other substances, which can include:
Soda ash
Zinc
Coke
Limestone fluxes
Silica
Iron
Pollution control particulates
Caustics
Pyrite
These reducing substances fuse with oxidizing elements. This frees up the metal, and then reduction takes place. The material is put inside a reducing environment, which often…