The usage of lead has a history of more than a thousand years. Humans have mastered the technique of extracting lead from its ores for more than a thousand years. Lead is hardly found as a free metal in nature.
The main ore of lead is lead sulphide, which is also known as Galena. Galena is crushed to a fine powder, and then mixed with water and some other chemicals. As a result of this, the lead sulphide will float to the top in the form of froth, and the waste rock will sink to the bottom. The froth is then dried and mixed with limestone to remove the sulphur from the lead sulphide. This leaves behind lead oxide.
The lead oxide is further crushed and heated in order to obtain molten lead after removing the oxygen molecules. It is purified further to make it ready for sale.