Lead Minerals and Deposits

Lead in the Earth's crust is about 16 g/t (0.0016%) .Lead sulphide (PbS) called Galena is the most important lead mineral. Lead minerals are mostly associated with other minerals, mainly zinc ores (about 70%).Lead deposits can be classified as follows:

Deposits

• Hydrothermal vein: There are two important deposits from this kind: Broken Hill in Australia and Anvil Mine in Canada and some anodes mine in the world.
• Volcanogenic sedimentary: This kind of deposits could be rich ore such as : Sullivan Mine in Canada ;Ramelsberg (Harz) in Germany; Mount Isa and Hellyer in Australia
• Hydrothermal or marine sedimentary: This kind of deposits is typically in calcareous or dolomitic formation such as North American and European, Pine Point in Canada and USA.

Lead Minerals

Table 1 shows the important lead minerals: