The most important primary ore is the lead sulfide Galena, PbS. Galena often contains silver, zinc, copper, cadmium, bismuth, arsenic, and antimony. 90% of primary lead ores come as a by-product of zinc and silver mining.

Lead ore is treated at concentrating mills to produce lead concentrate. First the ore is crushed leaving particles that are less than 0.1mm in diameter. Then it is mixed with water and different chemicals and pumped into flotation tanks. Oxygen is injected via the bottom of the tanks which are mechanically shaken. Unwanted residue, or gangue, sinks to the bottom of the flotation cells. Meanwhile, the froth containing lead particles floats to the surface.

The lead concentrate that is collected from flotation cells is of 70-80% purity. The concentrate is then shipped to smelters for the next stage of processing. Older indirect smelting methods involved roasters and blast furnaces. Newer direct methods use relatively small, intensive reactors. Examples of direct smelting methods include the KIVCET, QCL, and Isasmelt processes.

Smelted lead is then refined in order to strip away zinc and silver (Parkes process) as well as bismuth (Betterton-Kroll process). Refined lead of 99.97% purity is traded on the London Metal Exchange in the form of ingots.

Applications
Lead's most important application is in car batteries. Demand for lead-acid batteries has been increasing in line with the growing demand for cars across emerging markets in Asia.