About 145 employees of the Doe Run lead smelter [in Herculaneum, Missouri] learned they will lose their jobs at the end of December because of the plant's closure, the Doe Run Co. said Wednesday. An additional 73 contractor jobs also will be eliminated.
The job cuts were expected. The plant, which has operated for more than a century and is the lone remaining lead smelter in the United States, announced in 2010 that it will cease operations at the end of this year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the company "made a business decision" to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required by the Clean Air Act.
And more:
Without ammunition, a gun is just a club.
Update: more in the comments.
If the EPA took any notes from McGuinty they'll be quick to dynamite the plant so it can't be put back into operation.
Which further explains the massive investment the US Govt made to buy boxcare loads of ammunition for all of its "peaceful" departments...
Day By Day Cartoon had something on this recently:
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2013/10/29/
I googled around on this then and the only links to this story were found on somewhat wing nutty sites (admittedly, though, I did not dig too far). Two days after the original comic, Day By Day followed up with a correction:
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2013/10/31/
Which, I think, references this article:
http://nomoremister.blogspot.ca/2013/10/evil-obama-uses-time-machine-again-to.html
Googling around now, I found this (the clean web design confirms that it is 75% less wingnutty!):
http://bearingarms.com/its-the-end-of-the-primary-lead-smelter-in-herculaneum-and-i-feel-fine/
Sierra comments:
http://sierrabullets.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/sierra-responds-how-will-the-closure-of-the-lead-smelting-plant-affect-sierra-bullets/
I prefer to reload with Hornady bullets myself, but I don't see any comment from them on their weebsite.
That said, the wife and I are in the market for some compound bows.
Humph.
Well now, my 15,000 rounds bought in the last 5 years is looking better all the time.
I'm with you ratt. I have 2000 rounds of .45 acp I also have 5000 rounds of .22 !! Plus I have several friends with lots of guns and easily 50-60000 rounds to fuel each including 20-30000 rounds of .556 ,.223,9mm,and several thousand rounds of shot gun rounds plus .300win mag,and several other common but deadly rounds ..270 oh yeah 2 friends have .50cal and several hundred rounds between them of witch I have access to . Sort of a brotherhood if you will.
Yeah,make sure you tell the world about how much ammo you have. No one is watching, no one is listening.
Two words: High River.
Three answers to the above comments:
1. For every billion rounds the feds bought, the math says that is just 3 rounds per citizen. At 4.5 billion rounds, that means that is a little over a dozen rounds. We have 320 million citizens. Of those If even 100 million have guns (I'm not sure it is not a much higher number) and each of those gun owners have a thousand rounds, that is 100 billion rounds among the citizens. I suspect it is closer to 500 billion rounds. By the way, of those 100 million gun owners, about 23 million are veterans. During Vietnam, it took 25,000 rounds to kill one VC. That idiot McNamara figured that out and calculated what it would take to kill the last enemy insurgent with the last bullet. That is why we went to a small er combat bore.
2. The feds have what is known as the lead bank. That is a strategic repository of lead that can be used fro anything from bullets to batteries to radiation shielding. That lead is already smelted and I suspect the geniuses in the epa don't even know it exists.
3. The law of unintended circumstances goes into full swing. By closing our last smelter, we lose our main sources of cadmium and silver. I bet the A-O idiot never consulted with the Treasury. We also lose one of our lowest pollution sources of sulfuric acid. This is why, when obama is over and done with, if we are still alive and have any freedom at all, we will remember. We Will Remember. There WILL be an accounting.
So I assume that the price of lead does not cover the cost of smelting it with all the new requirements? I guess the US will simply have to import more raw resources than it does now. I wonder what that will do to the trade deficit.
A few other problems. Where will car battery manufacturers get their lead. Actually it should not be much of a problem as Canada is a major producer and the EPA is only a American job destroyer. Copper can replace lead in ammo, so if disarmament is the aim it will fail miserably. No shortage of lead in jurisdictions that the EPA can't get their planet saving hooks into.
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/minerals-metals/business-market/canadian-minerals-yearbook/2009-review/3940
And you guys thought I was kidding about buying wheel weights all this time, didn't you?
Refined lead can be sifted out of the butts of shooting ranges the same as gold is, with water and a rug. And soon will be, if Obama has anything to say about it.
On the other hand, PERFECT opportunity for Canadians to gear up and sell another commodity to the Americans. If we can only jettison these ferschlugginer liberals.
Don't worry, the ChiComs will sell as much ammo as they can...
"Copper can replace lead in ammo..."
Theoretically maybe. Have you ever tried to cast, forge or machine copper? It sticks to -everything-, it has a high melting point, its basically hell to work with, and its too light compared to lead. Also, stunningly expensive.
Tungsten with a copper coat is nice, but again tungsten is impossible to work with. And it comes from China. and stunningly expensive.
Lead you can melt on a camp fire and cast in a hand-held mold.
Wheel weights, my friends! The new currency that replaces Bitcoins.
No doubt the usual suspects are trying to shut down Canadian lead smelters.
Citing economy, pension worries, Fitch downgrades Chicago
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101186766
I DID'NT SAY WHERE I HAD IT! maybe here maybe stored in a bug out location , or a cabin or a family member's home/cabin...it's all good though I would lie to there faces if they asked anyway.
Something is up I say within about 10 years we will see what is exactly up for sure. think of the Nazi's and Stalingrad. The ruskis won that because they snuffed out supply lines ..I am getting the impression that is also being used here on the American people ...I am so glad that the auzzie told the u.n. to pound sand I wish we would do the same and completely abolish the whole thing ...but I suspect the worlds 70,000 richest people are all working together to form a 1 world gov by implementing U.N. agenda 21. and tactics like the e.p.a.,the sierra club ,David Suzuki, Al gore, etc. etc. the usual suspect's. defiantly Soros, Bilderberg's the Rockefeller's ,the Rothschild's
Oh I am not worried in the least about the U.S. Military winning against the citizens of the U.S.A. at all that is a lop sided ordeal the citizens of the U.S.A. far out gun and out man anything the Obama, U.N. agenda 21 regime could ever try. short of dirty bombs and nukes ect ect the American gov knows it would not stand a chance there are a lot of chris kyles out there who absolutely hate Obama and Hilary and reid and Pelosi and pretty much all establishment career politicians there are lots of RINO's out there .
that is not the question but why? who is controlling Obama,and the rest rockefellers,buffet,soros,pelosi,ried who has baought and paid for the American gov? is it the Chinese is it the muslims/Saudi princes? who have the Russians infiltrated the American gov like they said they would and are destroying America from with in? that's what I wonder. why the attack on the American's and who is it a concerted coalition effort in order to bring in the one world gov?
The EPA are Gestapo with long flower braided hair.
Being socialists, they hate America so bad. The want to see it shut down
There mission is to close down every Industry in America.
For a make believe environmental crisis.
Yes in the future there will be an counting of these sorts of saboteurs of their own Nation.
I had the pleasure of visiting that operation several times a few years ago. It is not just a smelter - there is a large scale underground mining operation there as well. It produces zinc in addition to lead.
Their main competition is from China, so between China (who predatory price many of their commodities)and the EPA (who are determined to shut down anything that smacks of industry) they are in a very tough place.
It employs some very fine people. I am very sorry to see it go after all these years.
I use to work in the lead smelter industry(30+ yrs), my humble province NB had a primary lead smelter with silver and copper as major byproducts enabling us to be relatively profitable most years. We had environmental policies to follow and we adapted to the ever increasing strictness over the decades. Currently the Smelter is struggling to survive. However China was viewed as unfair competition because they did not have to bother about protecting the environment nor ensure adequate protection for the worker. Furthermore, correct me if I am wrong, but I heard that the material that fed Doe Run will be going to China. If so, how's that for a slap in the face.
Cetainly looking better than 15,000 in bitcoin.
The Russians have been using steel bullets with a copper wash for decades, since they have very little lead and didn't have the hard currency to import it. Steel is cheap, plentiful and easily worked so I don't foresee all rifles suddenly becoming clubs. In 1994 a co-worker gave me some 9mm cartridges he found in his father's effects for me to dispose of them. They worked perfectly in my semi-auto pistol despite being 50 years old.
Reading a different article it sounds like they might move their operation to friendlier territory.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/29/lead-doerun-smelter-idUSL2E8HT76620120629
There are secondary facilities.
ex. Muncie, IN.
I've taken used batteries there for recycling.
Isn't there already tons of lead out there for sale as sinkers for the fishing Industry.
Which plant (as they exist today) produces less emissions - the plant in China or the plant in the US? Moving production to China does not help the environment.