The Southeast Missouri Lead District, commonly called the Lead Belt, is a lead mining district in the southeastern part of Missouri. Counties in the Lead Belt include Saint Francois, Crawford, Dent, Iron, Madison, Reynolds, and Washington. This mining district is the most important and critical lead producer in the United States. [1] [2]
The potential for lead mining in Southeast Missouri was first discovered and documented in 1700 by Father James Gravier. [2] Philip Francois Renault of France led a large exploratory mission in 1719 and started mining operations in Old Mines and Mine La Motte in 1720, establishing the first lead mining subdistrict of Mine LaMotte-Fredericktown. [2]
Between the 1750s and 1799, production of lead in the region decreased. In 1799, Moses Austin settled in Potosi, originally known as Mine a Breton, bringing new mining methods and practices that revitalized lead mining in the district. [2] Austin was the first to sink deep mine shafts and start smelting operations, dramatically increasing lead production. Before this time, lead mines had been surface or near-surface mines of less than 10 feet in depth. In 1808, Moses Austin and Samuel Hammond established the city of Herculaneum as a shipping point closer to the mining region, replacing Ste. Genevieve as the main shipping point to and from the mining district on the Mississippi River. [2]
The Old Lead Belt Subdistrict was established in 1864 with the opening of the Bonne Terre Mine by the St. Joseph Lead Company. [2] Notable mines in the subdistrict region included the Bonne Terre Mine, and mines near Doe Run, Desloge, Flat River (Park Hills), and Leadwood. In 1972, the last Old Lead Belt mine at Flat River closed, ending 108 years of lead mining in the Old Lead Belt.
The area of mining has changed over the years. The Old Lead Belt is centered on Park Hills and Desloge, while the New Lead Belt or Viburnum Trend is near Viburnum. The Irish Wilderness in Ripley and Oregon Counties has significant lead ore; however, this is a protected wilderness area. Significant among Missouri's lead mining concerns in the district was the Desloge family and Desloge Consolidated Lead Company in Desloge, Missouri and Bonne Terre—having been active in lead trading, mining and smelting from 1823 in Potosi to 1929. Lead mining operations were consolidated under the control of St. Joe Lead.
In the late 1940s, reserves in the Old Lead Belt began to decline, spurring new mineral exploration in the Southeast Missouri region. In 1955, the St. Joseph Lead Company discovered a new orebody near Viburnum, Missouri, leading to the opening of the Viburnum No. 27 Mine in 1960. [2] The St. Joseph Lead Company, Cominco, Kennecott Copper, Amax, Inc., and Asarco companies conducted exploration that led to the opening of 10 additional mines, establishing what is known today as the Viburnum Trend, also called the New Lead Belt. [2]
The Viburnum Trend is the only subdistrict mined for lead in the Southeast Missouri Lead District in modern day. Six lead mines are currently operational in 2022: the Brushy Creek, Buick, Casteel, Fletcher, and Sweetwater mines. [3]
Today, many of the mines and mills of the Old Lead Belt have been abandoned or repurposed. Bonne Terre has large subterranean mines, now used commercially for recreational tourism and scuba diving. The Missouri Mines State Historic Site occupies the retired Federal Mill No. 3 in Park Hills.
The formal geological name for the Lead Belt is the "Southeastern Missouri Mississippi Valley-type Mineral District". It contains the highest concentration of galena (lead(II) sulfide) in the world [2] as well as significant economic quantities of zinc, copper and silver and currently mined sub-economic quantities of metals such as cadmium, nickel and cobalt. [2] Most of the mined ore minerals are found as sulfides, with the primary ore minerals galena and sphalerite, with minor sulfides pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, enargite, millerite, and arsenopyrite. [2] Gangue minerals associated with the economic minerals include marcasite, calcite, dolomite, and quartz.
Sulfide and carbonate mineral specimens are highly prized by gem and mineral collectors and are found in museums worldwide.
The ore minerals of the Old Lead Belt are hosted in the dolomite of the lower Bonneterre Formation, and can extend into the underlying Lamotte Sandstone and rarely into the overlying Davis Formation. In the Viburnum Trend, lead-zinc ore mineralization is hosted in the bacterial stromatolite reefs dolomites of the upper Bonneterre Formation, [4] and most orebodies are concentrated in areas where the Lamotte Sandstone pinches out against Precambrian igneous knobs and ridges. [5] The Upper Cambrian age Bonneterre Formation was deposited in a shallow sea around the Precambrian age St. Francois Mountains, which formed an island archipelago. Ore mineralization most likely occurred during the Permian, when low-temperature hydrothermal metal-rich brines migrated through the Ozarks during the Ouachita orogeny in the Late Paleozoic. [6] [7] [4] [5]
Ore mineralization in the Lead Belt occurred as part of the same mineralization event, however, the intensity of mineralization and depositional controls differ between the Viburnum Trend and Old Lead Belt. [8] In the Old Lead Belt, galena is more fine-grained and disseminated into the host rock, and large, euhedral crystals are rare. Ore is mostly constrained to the lower 60 feet of the Bonneterre Formation, and preferentially follow the lateral sedimentary beds and features. In the Viburnum Trend, zinc and copper are found in higher concentrations, and galena was able to form larger, more euhedral crystals. Ore mineralization in this subdistrict is prominently emplaced along collapse breccias, and not as influenced by lateral sedimentary features as in the Old Lead Belt. Ore in the Viburnum Trend can be found throughout the entire vertical extent of the Bonneterre Formation, but is mostly constrained to the upper 75 feet. [8]
The Lead Belt produces about 70% of the US primary supply of lead, and significant amounts of the nation's zinc. [1] In the year 2000, Missouri produced 313,105 tons, with an estimated value of $128,838,880, according to Missouri DNR Data. About 84% of the lead is used for lead–acid batteries, and a secondary smelter in Boss, Missouri recycles lead–acid batteries. Another major consumer of Missouri lead is Winchester Ammunition, located in East Alton, Illinois.
From 1720 to its closure in 1959, the Mine La Motte-Fredericktown Subdistrict produced over 325,000 tons of lead. From 1864 to 1972, over 8.5 million tons of lead was produced from the Old Lead Belt Subdistrict. [2] The Viburnum Trend is the only subdistrict still in production, and is primarily mined by The Doe Run Company. From 1960 to 2022, The Doe Run Company has reported that nearly 315 million tons of ore has been extracted from the Viburnum Trend. [3]
| Year | Democrat | Republican | Third Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | |
| 2020 | 14,510 | 20.83% | 54,183 | 77.78% | 965 | 1.39% |
| 2016 | 13,456 | 21.24% | 47,521 | 75.01% | 2,372 | 3.74% |
| 2012 | 21,196 | 35.53% | 37,046 | 62.09% | 1,420 | 2.38% |
| 2008 | 27,890 | 43.69% | 34,795 | 54.50% | 1,158 | 1.81% |
| 2004 | 26,282 | 43.26% | 34,061 | 56.06% | 414 | 0.68% |
| 2000 | 23,481 | 44.04% | 28,556 | 53.56% | 1,277 | 2.40% |
| 1996 | 25,135 | 49.72% | 17,817 | 35.24% | 7,601 | 15.04% |
| 1992 | 26,804 | 49.40% | 16,727 | 30.83% | 10,729 | 19.77% |
| 1988 | 23,744 | 50.05% | 23,561 | 49.67% | 134 | 0.28% |
| 1984 | 21,189 | 42.90% | 28,207 | 57.10% | 0 | 0% |
| 1980 | 23,329 | 44.41% | 27,817 | 52.95% | 1,389 | 2.64% |
| 1976 | 25,909 | 56.69% | 19,568 | 42.81% | 229 | 0.50% |
| 1972 | 14,673 | 35.35% | 26,830 | 64.65% | 0 | 0% |
| 1968 | 17,125 | 39.70% | 20,689 | 47.96% | 5,327 | 12.35% |
| 1964 | 28,062 | 64.04% | 15,760 | 35.96% | 0 | 0% |
| 1960 | 19,603 | 42% | 27,066 | 58% | 0 | 0% |
| 1956 | 21,208 | 45.02% | 25,903 | 54.98% | 0 | 0% |
| 1952 | 22,700 | 47.56% | 24,974 | 52.32% | 59 | 0.12% |
| 1948 | 22,019 | 55.88% | 17,300 | 43.90% | 88 | 0.22% |
| 1944 | 19,971 | 49.12% | 20,630 | 50.74% | 55 | 0.14% |
| 1940 | 24,156 | 49.54% | 24,515 | 50.28% | 87 | 0.18% |
| 1936 | 24,077 | 54.27% | 20,067 | 45.23% | 218 | 0.49% |
| 1932 | 24,822 | 60.51% | 15,836 | 38.60% | 365 | 0.89% |
| 1928 | 13,859 | 37.84% | 22,674 | 61.91% | 90 | 0.25% |
| 1924 | 16,619 | 49.22% | 16,399 | 48.57% | 745 | 2.21% |
| 1920 | 15,986 | 46.82% | 17,619 | 51.61% | 535 | 1.57% |
| 1916 | 11,384 | 51.45% | 10,262 | 46.38% | 479 | 2.16% |
| 1912 | 9,225 | 47.85% | 7,228 | 37.49% | 2,825 | 14.65% |
| 1908 | 10,166 | 46.97% | 10,675 | 49.32% | 803 | 3.71% |
| 1904 | 9,129 | 47.73% | 9,537 | 49.87% | 319 | 1.67% |
| 1900 | 10,056 | 53.36% | 8,575 | 45.51% | 213 | 1.13% |
| 1896 | 9,866 | 56.52% | 7,527 | 43.12% | 64 | 0.37% |
| 1892 | 8,681 | 57.71% | 6,102 | 40.56% | 260 | 1.73% |
| 1888 | 8,878 | 56.48% | 6,485 | 41.25% | 357 | 2.27% |
| 1884 | 8,097 | 61.16% | 5,055 | 38.19% | 86 | 0.65% |
| 1880 | 7,964 | 64.38% | 4,160 | 33.63% | 246 | 1.99% |
| 1876 | 7,697 | 68.82% | 3,461 | 30.94% | 27 | 0.24% |
| 1872 | 4,822 | 62.91% | 2,843 | 37.09% | 0 | 0% |
| 1868 | 2,199 | 54.31% | 1,850 | 45.69% | 0 | 0% |
| 1864 | 717 | 24.41% | 2,220 | 75.59% | 0 | 0% |
| 1860 | 2,380 | 43.19% | 211 | 3.83% | 2,920 | 52.98% |
| 1856 | 2,481 | 57.13% | 0 | 0% | 1,862 | 42.87% |
| 1852 | 1,594 | 60.38% | 1,046 | 39.62% | 0 | 0% |
| 1848 | 1,497 | 54.02% | 1,274 | 45.98% | 0 | 0% |
| 1844 | 1,588 | 54.35% | 1,334 | 45.65% | 0 | 0% |
| 1840 | 1,312 | 54.58% | 1,092 | 45.42% | 0 | 0% |
| 1836 | 703 | 58.29% | 503 | 41.71% | 0 | 0% |
| 1832 | Incomplete returns | Incomplete returns | Incomplete returns | |||
| 1828 | 816 | 70.89% | 335 | 29.11% | 0 | 0% |
St. Francois County is a county in the Lead Belt region in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 census, the population was 66,922. The largest city and county seat is Farmington. The county was officially organized on December 19, 1821. It was named after the St. Francis River. The origin of the river's name is unclear. It may refer to St. Francis of Assisi. Another possibility is that Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit who explored the region in 1673, named the river for the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier; Marquette had spent some time at the mission of St. François Xavier before his voyage and, as a Jesuit, was unlikely to have given the river a name honoring the Franciscans.
Bonne Terre is a city in St. Francois County, Missouri, United States with a population of 6,864 at the 2010 census. Situated in the Southeast Missouri Lead District, lead mining shaped the history and character of the area from the earliest French settlers in the 1720s until today, even though Bonne Terre Mine established by St. Joseph lead mining company in 1864 closed in 1962. Mine tailing piles eroded, and contaminated the area as dust, posing residential hazards or were washed into the Big River. Only in 1992, the Bonne Terre Mine Tailings Site was listed as a Superfund site; as of 2022 remediation is still ongoing.
Desloge is a city in St. Francois County, Missouri, United States. The population was 5,054 as of the 2010 census.
Potosi is a city in Washington County, Missouri, United States. Potosi is seventy-two miles southwest of St. Louis. The population was 2,660 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Washington County.
Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula (Zn, Fe)S. It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Valley type, and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. It is found in association with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, calcite, dolomite, quartz, rhodochrosite, and fluorite.
Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver.
The Doe Run Resources Corporation, known by the trade name The Doe Run Company, is a privately held natural resources company and global producer of lead, copper, and zinc concentrates. It owns four mills, six mines and a lead battery recycling plant, all in southeast Missouri, United States, and a subsidiary Fabricated Products Inc. with locations in Arizona and Washington. It also owns two former primary lead smelter sites in the U.S. that are currently being remediated. It is wholly owned by The Renco Group, Inc
Carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ore deposits are important and highly valuable concentrations of lead and zinc sulfide ores hosted within carbonate formations and which share a common genetic origin.
The Broken Hill Ore Deposit is located underneath Broken Hill in western New South Wales, Australia, and is the namesake for the town. It is arguably the world's richest and largest zinc-lead ore deposit.
Fletcherite is a rare thiospinel sulfide mineral with formula Cu(Ni,Co)2S4. It is an opaque metallic steel gray mineral which crystallizes in the cubic crystal system. It is a member of the linnaeite group.
St. Joe Minerals Corporation was an American mining company. It was the United States largest producer of lead and zinc at the time of its merger with Fluor Corporation in 1981. The St. Joseph Lead Company was founded on March 25, 1864 by Lyman W. Gilbert, John E. Wylie, Edmund I. Wade, Wilmot Williams, James L. Dunham and James L. Hathaway in New York City.
Desloge Consolidated Lead Company was a lead mining company in the Southeast Missouri Lead District that was operated by the Desloge family in the 19th and early 20th century. The Desloge lead operations in the "Old Lead Belt", in the eastern Ozark Mountains, helped Missouri become the world's premier lead mining area.
Firmin Vincent Desloge II was an American industrialist lead mining pioneer in the disseminated lead fields of the Southeast Missouri Lead District and member of the Desloge family in America.
The Desloge family, centered mostly in Missouri and especially at St. Louis, rose to wealth through international commerce, sugar refining, oil drilling, fur trading, mineral mining, saw milling, manufacturing, railroads, real estate, and riverboats. The family has funded hospitals and donated large tracts of land for public parks and conservation.
The Shady Dolomite is a geologic formation composed of marine sedimentary rocks of early Cambrian age. It outcrops along the eastern margin of the Blue Ridge province in the southeastern United States and can be found in outcrops in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. It can also be found in the subsurface of Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Shady is predominantly composed of dolomite and limestone with lesser amounts of mudrock. It contains fossils of trilobites, archaeocyathids, algae, brachiopods, and echinoderms, along with the enigmatic fossil Salterella. The Shady Dolomite was first described by Arthur Keith in 1903 and was named for exposures in the Shady Valley of Johnson County in the state of Tennessee. Near Austinville, Virginia, the Shady hosts ore deposits that have been mined extensively for lead and zinc ore.
The Bonneterre Formation is an Upper Cambrian geologic formation which outcrops in the St. Francois Mountains of the Missouri Ozarks. The Bonneterre is a major host rock for the lead ores of the Missouri Lead Belt.
Zinc mining in the United States produced 780,000 tonnes of zinc in 2019, making it the world's fourth-largest zinc producer, after China, Australia, and Peru. Most US zinc came from the Red Dog mine in Alaska. The industry employed about 2,500 in mining and milling, and 250 in smelting.
The Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Railway was a single-track standard-gauge steam railroad that was located in southeastern Missouri and began service in 1892. It extended from Riverside in a general southwesterly direction to the lead-mining field in St. Francois County. The main stem, from Riverside to Doe Run, was 46.492 miles (74.822 km) long. Eight short branch lines had a total trackage of 17.418 miles (28.032 km). Sidings and spurs aggregated 30.664 miles (49.349 km), and all tracks owned 94.574 miles (152.202 km).
Hydrothermal mineral deposits are accumulations of valuable minerals which formed from hot waters circulating in Earth's crust through fractures. They eventually produce metallic-rich fluids concentrated in a selected volume of rock, which become supersaturated and then precipitate ore minerals. In some occurrences, minerals can be extracted for a profit by mining. Discovery of mineral deposits consumes considerable time and resources and only about one in every one thousand prospects explored by companies are eventually developed into a mine. A mineral deposit is any geologically significant concentration of an economically useful rock or mineral present in a specified area. The presence of a known but unexploited mineral deposit implies a lack of evidence for profitable extraction.
The epithermal vein deposit (EVP) is a type of mineral deposit that forms in the shallow subsurface, typically at depths of less than 1,500 meters below the Earth's surface. These deposits are formed by hot, mineral-rich fluids that circulate through fractures and cracks in rocks. As the fluids cool, they deposit minerals, such as gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc, into the veins. EVP are typically small in size, but they can be very high-grade, meaning that they contain a high concentration of valuable minerals.
