Ausmelt Lead Technology produces lead bullion directly from concentrates and secondary lead materials. Ausmelt lead facilities are currently in operation at Korea Zinc's Onsan plant in South Korea and at Metaleurop's Nordenham plant in Germany. The bullion operations at these two sites are now approaching production levels of 80,000 and 140,000 tonnes a year of lead bullion respectively. Following the start-up of another plant currently being supplied to Hindustan Zinc Ltd in India (60,000 tonnes a year), Ausmelt lead technology will be used to produce around 280,000 tonnes a year of lead bullion.

Low to high-grade concentrates are readily accepted, and lead secondary feeds such as battery paste and grids, lead scrap, refinery and leach residue recycles can be processed. Ausmelt lead technology also accepts a mixture of primary and secondary lead materials and can process a far higher proportion of lead secondaries in a combined feedstock (up to 100%) than older, sinter plant/blast furnace technology (~5%).

Ausmelt lead smelting systems operate up to three process stages: smelting, slag reduction and slag fuming. These stages can all be carried out using a single Ausmelt furnace, or in two coupled Ausmelt furnaces for larger scale throughputs.