2024 Letter from the CEO
20 Aug 2025
Letter from the President and CEO
Thank you for your interest in The Doe Run Company. As President and CEO, I am committed to leading Doe Run as a sustainable and responsible contributor in the rapidly growing and evolving base and critical minerals and materials sector.
The efforts of our dedicated employees enable Doe Run to contribute to meeting the growing demand for minerals vital for so many products. From the battery in your vehicle to large-scale back-up power systems for hospitals, data centers, financial institutions, and more, minerals run our modern society. Thanks to revolutionary work from our team in recent years and key results in 2024, Doe Run is on the verge of an incredible breakthrough in critical mineral recovery.
This advancement will propel our company to become a global innovator in ethically meeting soaring minerals and metals demand. Our efforts have the potential to improve the lives of Missourians, Americans, and consumers around the globe. Read more about this technology here.
Positioning Doe Run for the Future
Base metals like copper, zinc, and lead, are non-ferrous, industrial metals that are abundant, relatively inexpensive, and can readily be used in various applications. Critical minerals are non-fuel minerals that are essential to the economy and national security, including those crucial for modern technologies and clean energy, but with supply chains that are vulnerable to disruption. Examples of critical minerals include cobalt, nickel, zinc, antimony, gallium, and germanium.
Doe Run provides copper, lead, and zinc through two distinct operations: mining and recycling. As mandated by the U.S. Energy Act of 2022, the U.S. Geological Survey identifies critical minerals essential for the U.S. economy and national security. The Energy Act also mandates that the U.S. Department of Energy identifies critical materials for energy. Of the three base minerals Doe Run mines (copper, zinc, and lead), these U.S. government agencies list copper as a critical material and zinc as a critical mineral. Our base mineral resources also contain other critical minerals, including cobalt, nickel, and germanium. Doe Run’s proprietary hydromet technology, utilizing an ammonium chloride process (ACL Process), is a first-of-its-kind process in the mining industry and has the potential to reduce our world’s reliance on pyrometallurgical smelters. In 2024, we entered into a contract with the Department of Defense to build a demonstration scale plant utilizing our technology.
Doe Run’s Proprietary ACL Process and Hydromet Technology
Built on more than 15 years of research the ACL Process is a breakthrough separation process that enables recovery of mineral products using a hydrometallurgical (wet-chemical) versus a pyrometallurgical (furnace) process.
Our ACL Process can separate and capture a variety of minerals from both mined material (such as mineral concentrates) and from by-products and spent materials (such as mine tailings, furnace slags, spent batteries, etc.). Our colleagues in the Doe Run Technology Center have demonstrated recovery of copper, zinc, cobalt, nickel, lead, tin, and antimony – minerals in extremely high demand for use in electric vehicles, weapons systems, technology devices, and a vast array of other industriesi. According to the USGAii, the U.S. imports more than half of our nonfuel mineral sources and is 100% reliant on foreign countries for about 1/3 of minerals considered “critical.” China, the largest global producer for many minerals, recently banned exporting some of them to the U.S.iii
Based on this instability and skyrocketing demand, the U.S. Government Accountability Office states the U.S. is at risk of shortages in materials needed both for national security and our everyday lives.iv Our ACL Process will allow us to produce those critical resources right here in the United States, reducing our foreign dependence while complying with some of the world’s most stringent safety, labor, and environmental standards. It can also allow us to extract vital resources from legacy mining and mineral processing wastes.
Keeping Copper in North America
Additional victories in 2024 are the new partnerships we formed to keep in North America the copper and zinc we mine in Missouri. Copper, which is necessary to transfer energy, and zinc, which is important for galvanized steel and other products, are largely smelted in Asia. We have spent years developing relationships with North American companies to process closer to home. As a result, in 2024 we reduced our dependency on Asian and European entities and are lessening environmental impacts associated with global transportation.
Lead Batteries Support a Clean Energy Future
While we continue advancing efforts in domestic critical mineral and metal recovery, Doe Run remains one of the top three lead-producing miners in the world.v Lead is the steadfast and dominant resource for batteries, whether deployed in vehicles or used to secure data and provide power for critical infrastructure. These safe and reliable energy storage devices continue to evolve, improving performance and lifespan.vi While demand growth for lead has leveled in recent years, it remains strong and is on track to continue steady growthvii.
Doe Run produces lead concentrates from our mines and lead metal and alloys by recycling lead batteries at our Buick Resource Recycling Facility. Our lead concentrate purity is recognized worldwide, making it desirable for smelters across the globe. The vast majority of our lead products are utilized in the production of batteries.
One example of batteries supporting clean energy is in the project Doe Run helped launch between our utility provider, Ameren Missouri (Ameren) and lead battery producer GS Yuasa to develop a first-of-its-kind managed EV charging and microgrid platform powered by stationary advanced lead batteries and solar panels. Learn more about this innovation here.
Years from now when these batteries reach their end of life, they will be safely recycled through domestic lead battery recycling plants, including our plant in southern Missouri. Our Buick Resource Recycling Facility recycles about 8 million lead batteries per year. In 2024, our recycling team successfully addressed production challenges to improve performance at various stages of operation.
Missouri Mining and Recycling Supports Missouri’s People
The need for minerals recovered right here in our Missouri mines will only continue to soar. And while the U.S. Government Accountability Office has identified the need for increased mining in the U.S., permitting and infrastructure for new operations will take many years and a huge investment.viii Thanks to our well-established operation, we already have the permits and infrastructure in place to immediately produce base and critical minerals required to meet energy demands, including supporting clean energy options. However, we will need regulatory support and increased funding sources to move forward in utilizing the resources available to us.
While our vision is big, the heart of our company is in the small Missouri towns where we have been an institution for more than 160 years. Our mining and recycling operations sustain high-paying work for 1061 employees and their families, and contribute $715 million to our Missouri economy, including contributing $192,636,719 directly through spending with Missouri vendors.
Our people are our most valuable assets, which is why we provide extensive training, employee benefits, and opportunities to learn new skills while on the job for career advancement. In 2024, we created a new training program using advanced simulators and hands-on learning to build skills in equipment operation. Learn more about our new simulator training program here. We also provide scholarships and summer camps for Missouri students interested in our industry. Further, we host tours and educational opportunities across the state. Giving back to communities through time, talent, and contributions is an important aspect of our culture. Each year, our employees volunteer to support community events like food drives, hurricane relief, and more.
Our mission goes beyond extracting valuable resources. It is about finding how we can best meet the expanding needs of the future – for technology, renewable energy, medicine, national security, and all of the other industries relying on critical minerals to make advancements. On a global and on a community level, we want to create lasting value through ethical practices, innovation, and collaboration.
We at Doe Run value your opinions. As you review our Sustainability Report, I invite you to share your comments or reflections with me via this survey link.
As always, thank you for your interest in Doe Run. We are always looking for new partners to help us continue this exciting path forward. To learn more about our recent activities, visit the Media section of this website.
Sincerely,
Matthew D. Wohl
President and CEO
[i] U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023
[ii] U.S. Department of the Interior USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025, U.S. Production and Consumption, Page 6
[iii] U.S. Department of the Interior USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025, Foreign Trade, Page 5
[iv] Letter to Congressional Addressees from GAO in July 2024 Critical Mineral Technology Assessment, Page 1
[v] Wood Mackenzie, Global Lead Production Ranking by Operation and by Company – 2023 and 2024
[vi] Battery Council International, Economic Contribution of the U.S. Lead Battery Industry – Published 2025, Page 9
[vii] Battery Council International, Economic Contribution of the U.S. Lead Battery Industry – Published 2025, Page 5
[viii] United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Addressees, Technology Assessment, Critical Minerals, Page 25
