Lead is one of the family of elements called heavy metals. It is used in building construction, manufacture of lead-acid batteries, bullets, shot, weights, solders, pewters, fusible alloys, and radiation shielding. It has the highest atomic number (82) of all the stable elements.	Image Courtesy  of Wikipedia Commons

A little known fact about lead is that it plays a critical role in smelter operations.  Without lead it would be nearly impossible to recover many of the more valuable metals in metallic ores.

Lead is a natural part of many metallic ores, often found in combination with zinc and copper.  Colorado has produced billions of pounds of lead during its long mining history.