It was the United States largest producer of lead and zinc at the time of its merger with Fluor Corporation in 1981.
However under first president J. Wyman Jones and new mine manager Charles B. Parsons began using new diamond drilling techniques the business prospered.
By 1923 the company had 250 miles of underground railroad running under Flat River, Leadwood, Desloge, Rivermines and Elvins, Missouri.
[3][4] In the 1940s it expanded its Missouri Lead Belt operations to Indian Creek, Viburnum, Meramec Township, and Fletcher.
The Bonne Terre Mine and St. Joe Lead Company Administration Building are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.