Metal Mining
The mining divisions of The Doe Run Company utilize modern mining and milling technology.
Doe Run’s mines are underground ore deposits, which are mined in “room and pillar” technique. In the room and pillar process, ore containing lead, zinc and copper is drilled and blasted, then loaded by front-end loaders into trucks. The ore is either crushed underground and hoisted to the surface through an ore shaft or brought directly to the surface for primary crushing and further processing at the mill.
Doe Run’s mills have a production capacity of 30,000 tons of ore per day. The mills incorporate the most modern design concepts, such as on-line analytical instruments to improve recovery of metal values from the ore. Ore from the mines, crushed and ground at the mills, is chemically treated in a flotation process to separate metal-containing mineral from the waste rock (tailings). The resulting lead concentrates are then transported to Doe Run’s Herculaneum smelter or sold on the world market.
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Heavy equipment such as a diamond drill is used hundreds of feet underground to explore for ore deposits
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