Commonly, silver ore is obtained from open pit mines, and underground drifts and shafts. Explosives are frequently used to shatter veins into manageable pieces, which are transported via mine cars and then lifted to the surface. The process can be dangerous. A large nugget of native silver, mined in Colorado U.S.
Silver can be found across many geographies, but approximately 56% of the world's silver production is found in the Americas, with Mexico, Peru, and Chile supplying 43%.
Silver is found generally in lead ores, copper ores, and cobalt arsenide ores and is also frequently associated with gold in nature. Most silver is derived as a by-product from ores that are mined and processed to obtain these other metals.
The ores of silver occur in veins traversing granitic and gneissic rocks, clay slate, mica schist, limestone, and are usually associated with the ores of iron, copper, load (galena being always argentiferous), zinc.
For ores where the most valuable element is silver, the silver is normally contained in minerals colored gray to black in appearance. These minerals range from a metallic sheen to an earthy soot-like appearance.
The Magnet Test
Most precious metals-like gold and copper-are nonmagnetic, and silver is no exception. Grab some magnets and see if they are drawn to your object. "Silver is not noticeably magnetic, and exhibits only weak magnetic effects unlike iron, nickel, cobalt, and the like," says Martin.
Things You Should Know
Use a magnifying glass to inspect the surface of the silver for stamps. If you see a 920 stamp, the piece is 92.5% silver, 900 means 90% silver, and 800 is 80% silver. Hold a magnet against the silver to see if it sticks. If it does, it's not real silver.
Such discoveries include the Scuddles mine (140 metres deep) in Western Australia, the Cannington deposit (10 metres deep) in north Queensland, the Hellyer mine (90 metres deep) in Tasmania and the Wilga deposit in Victoria (50 metres below the surface).
A rock containing silver will have a dark, almost sooty appearance or dark crystals within the rock. There are several different types of silver ore in the world depending on the geography. Some have gray spider-like veins running through the rocks, while others can be more gray or black in color.
Silver is the 68th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and 65th in cosmic abundance. It is found in small quantities in many locations on Earth. Large amounts of the metal have been mined in both North and South America, which together produce over half the world total.
Supply & Demand
In addition to the increased demand for silver, there are constraints on supply. The cost of mining silver actually exceeds its selling price. In fact, the majority of silver is mined as a byproduct of other metals, and for approximately every 27,000 pounds of earth, there's only one gram of silver.
Silver is a rare element, which occurs naturally in its pure form as a white, ductile metal, and in ores. It has an average abundance of about 0.1 ppm in the earth's crust and about 0.3 ppm in soils.
Products often can be mistaken as silver if they are silver plated, or in other words made with a different metal (iron, cobalt, or nickel, copper, brass, stainless steel, among others) and then applied a silver silver layer over it, in that case you will need to be more careful with the use you give to them, since ...
The most important ore mineral of silver is argentite (Ag2S, silver sulfide). Silver is commonly extracted from ore by smelting or chemical leaching.
Pure silver has a bright metallic white-gray color; silver nitrate and silver chloride are powdery white in color, while silver sulfide and silver oxide are dark gray to black.
$100 Face value of coins. All coins contain 90% silver and 10% copper. Approximately 71.5 Troy oz of silver in each bag.