Bismuth reserves are obviously lower than lead because it is a by product of lead mining and because lead mining for lead is down because of recycling (see below)... well, one can see deminishing overall benefit if lead is an honest concern to the those choosing to use bismuth to replace lead. Some notes from the US Geological Survey MINERAL COMMODITY SUMMARIES 2004 (http://minerals.er.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2004/mcs2004.pdf) "About 1.1 million tons of secondary lead was produced by recycling in the US, an amount equivalent to 77% of domestic lead consumption. Nearly all of it was recovered from old (post-consumer) scrap. About 1 million tons (equivalent to 70% of domestic lead consumption) was recovered from used batteries alone.)" Average reported prices for some relevant industry metals last year Lead - $0.21/lb (London Metals Echange) Copper - $0.78/lb Tin - $2.14/lb Bismuth $2.90/lb Silver - $68.50/lb Indium - $79.50/lb Palladium- $4240.00/lb Gold - $5109.00/lb --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------