Potosi

Philippe Francois Renault brought slave labor from Santo Domingo to the Potosi area to mine surface and near-surface ores in 1721. Moses Austin settled here in 1799 and started the first underground lead mine in Missouri with a shaft sunk to 80 feet (24m). He brought improved mining and extraction techniques and built the region's first reverbratory furnace for smelting ore in 1802. Moses Austin, who later pioneered American settlement in Texas and for whom Austin, Texas, is named, is buried in Potosi.

Mine LaMotte was the earliest or one of the earliest productive lead mines in Missouri, depending on the source, as early as 1721. It was worked intermittently for 238 yeas until 1959. Mines in the Mine LaMotte-Fredericktown subdistrict have produced lead, copper, silver, nickel, and cobalt. Extraction of nickel and cobalt was sporadic and never very effective, though at times in the 1800s the district produced most of the nation's nickel.

Ste. Genevieve

Sainte Genevieve was founded by French-Canadian colonists as a port to ship lead mined in the interior down the Mississippi River to New Orleans and ultimately to France. It was also winter home to many miners in the early days when the mining was a seasonal activity. Many French Colonial buildings are preserved in Ste. Genevieve, but French culture was rapidly overwhelmed by American and German immigration after the Louisiana Purchase.

Missouri Route 32 between Ste. Genevieve and Farmington roughly follows the route of the old corduroy road used to haul lead to Ste. Genevieve for export.

Herculaneum

Moses Austin established Herculaneum in order to have a shipping point on the Missippi River closer to his mines near Potosi. The Doe Run Company operated a primary lead smelter in Herculaneum until 2013.

Bonne Terre

Enormous mines exhausted of productive ore lie under Bonne Terre. The mines can be toured, and scuba diving is conducted parts of the mine that flooded when the pumps were turned off after mining ceased. Large piles of mine tailings, called "chat", remain in Bonne Terre and other areas of the Old Lead Belt.

Old Mines

The Old Mines area of Missouri, centered on the unincorporated village of Old Mines, was the last isolated bastion of French culture in Missouri, and as late as the 1980s there were over a thousand French speakers still living in the area.[2] The use of French as a first language was alive and vibrant into the early 20th century. World Wars I and II with the military draft brought many of the area residents out of their isolation, and the language began to die out with universal education in English and lack of strong French-centered institutions. Mass was offered in French at St. Joachim Catholic Church into the 1920s. The area has much French colonial architecture, characterized by homes with roofs that slope to the front, melding into a gallery roof that runs the width of the building.

Park Hills

Park Hills was formed from the merger in 1994 of four adjoining towns: Flat River, Elvins, Esther, and Rivermines. These towns where homes to many of the miners that worked the Old Lead Belt.

Ironton

The lead ore of the Lead Belt was deposited primarily in fossil reefs that had formed much earlier when the precambrian St. Francois Mountains were an ancient archipelago, so the lead is found mostly on the flanks of the St. Francois.

In the heart of the St. Francois, Ironton was, as its name suggests, home to iron mining. It is the seat of Iron County. Nearby Pilot Knob was once heavily mined and is now a national wildlife refuge for the endangered Indiana Bat that hibernates in its abandoned mines.

St. Francois Mountains

The precambrian St. Francois Mountains are part of the reason that lead is found here. The mountains were an archipelago in an ancient shallow sea. Stromatolite reefs formed around the islands, and much later these fossilized reefs, encased in younger sedimentary strata, served as the path for infiltration by mineral-bearing fluids which deposited the ores.

The mines of the Viburnum Trend are much deeper than those of the Old Lead Belt, over 1000 feet (300m), because the ancient reefs are buried deeper there. The blue area of the map shows only surface exposures of precambrian-aged rocks. Those rocks continue at depth away from the St. Francois, forming the basement for rest of the state.

Subdistricts

These are not the only areas where lead was found and mined. Early on in the European era lead and barite ore was found at the surface in many places all over this area. These subdistrict boundaries were defined by the source cited as being areas of notable lead production at various times. The primary subdistricts are the Mine Lamotte-Fredericktown, the Old Lead Belt, and the Viburnum Trend.

Viburnum Mine #29

In production since 1964.

Viburnum Mine #27

Discovery hole drilled in 1955 found ore containing 29% lead in a body 31ft (10m) thick. Production ran from 1960 to 1978. The flooded mine now serves as the drinking water supply for the town of Viburnum.

Viburnum Mine #28 and Central Mill

Located on the east edge of Viburnum; produced from 1962 to 2000.

Casteel Mine

Also known as Viburnum No. 35 Mine, opened in 1983.

Magmont Mine

Production ran from 1968 to 1994 from a depth of 1200 ft (400 m). "Magmont" is formed from the names of the two companies that jointly discovered and operated the mine: Montana Phosphate Products Co., and Magnet Cove Barium (Dresser Industries).

Buick Mine and Mill

Production began in 1969 from a depth of 1100 ft (335 m).

Buick Resource Recovery Facility

The lead smelter at Buick that has been converted into the world's largest lead recycling smelter, according to the Doe Run Company[3] The operation removes lead from lead-acid batteries, spent ammunition, lead-lined picture tubes and computer screens, and other lead-bearing material to produce lead and lead alloy for new use.

Brushy Creek Mine and Mill

Production began in 1973. Produces some copper along with the lead and zinc.

West Fork Mine and Mill

Limited production began in 1985 and full production in 1988. Currently operated as part of the Fletcher Mine.

Fletcher Mine and Mill

Production began in 1966 at a depth of 1334 ft (407 m). Also produces significant quantities of copper. Now includes the West Fork Mine that began production in 1985.

Sweetwater Mine

Originally known as Ozark Lead Company Mine or Frank R. Milliken Mine, began production in 1968.

Indian Creek Mine

Production ran from 1953 to 1982 from an isolated ore body discovered in 1948. This was the first mine of the "New Lead Belt".

Exploration for new exploitable ore shifted to the west side of the St. Francois after World War II when the mines of the Old Lead Belt were nearing exhaustion. The first of the new mines was the Indian Creek Mine in northern Washington County in 1953. The rich Viburnum Trend was subsequently developed.

Viburnum Trend

All lead mining in the Southeast Missouri Lead District currently takes place in six of these mines operated by the Doe Run Company in the Viburnum Trend deposits. Others shown here are no longer producing. According to the company's website, 70% of primary lead production in the United States is from these mines.[4] archive copy at the Wayback Machine

Valles Mines

The Valles Mines subdistrict began production in 1824 and was most active from the late 1800s to 1917 when production ceased. During World War II tailings were shipped for reprocessing, but no mining took place.

Irondale

The Irondale subdistrict produced lead from small ore bodies concentrated around precambrian igneous knobs.

Annapolis

In the Annapolis subdistrict lead was mined from small ore bodies concentrated around precambrian igneous knobs.