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old lead in shipwrecks

Thucydides

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I watched a tv show on some divers searching for some lead ingots in a shipwreck. According to the show, this lead is somehow depleted after being in the salt water for decades (electron depleted or something of the sort) and is very valuable for electronics or computers.
What is this lead called? how old does it have to be? Who buys and sells it?
 
Low Alpha Lead, ask Crusader ;D.

hammered
 
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Yes low alpha lead,

Not depleted by being under the water - it was actually mined in the years and centuries BEFORE nuclear bombs and increased radiation background levels.

Modern lead is contaminated from the time its mined now and isn't suited to the micro switching end use that low alpha lead is.

There are a couple labs in the US will buy it but not without having a smaple tested for radiation levels first.

I know where there's about 6 tonnes of 300 year old Low Alpha lead ingots off a dutch east indiaman - that belong to the maritime museum, sitting in about 7 meters - they moved them off the wreck site and dumped them - to get at the silver coinage - when the lead was probably worth more than the coins.

Because they belong to the Maritime museum - no one can recover them and the museum are too stupid to know about low alpha lead and it's REAL value.

You can Google LOW ALPHA Lead and find results.

Cheers
 
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hammered said:
Low Alpha Lead, ask Crusader ;D.

hammered

True Low Alpha Lead. The Radio active depletion happens naturally over time & should not be confused with the effects of salt water, it would happen in any environment (soil,air,water).

The older the better, but needs to be at least 100 years old before its worth processing (expensive process & 100 years is still pretty low quality)
 
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CRUSADER said:
hammered said:
Low Alpha Lead, ask Crusader ;D.

hammered

True Low Alpha Lead. The Radio active depletion happens naturally over time & should not be confused with the effects of salt water, it would happen in any environment (soil,air,water).

The older the better, but needs to be at least 100 years old before its worth processing (expensive process & 100 years is still pretty low quality)

So 200 year old lead wouldn't improve quality much relative to 100 year old?

Welcome to T-Net Thucydides :hello:
 
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You can google lo-alpha lead here at TN and maybe get some answers.
 
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IronSpike said:
CRUSADER said:
hammered said:
Low Alpha Lead, ask Crusader ;D.

hammered

True Low Alpha Lead. The Radio active depletion happens naturally over time & should not be confused with the effects of salt water, it would happen in any environment (soil,air,water).

The older the better, but needs to be at least 100 years old before its worth processing (expensive process & 100 years is still pretty low quality)

So 200 year old lead wouldn't improve quality much relative to 100 year old?

Welcome to T-Net Thucydides :hello:

if its good old pure lead then as a rule - yes!
 
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