The history of silver goes back to 3000 B.C when it was first mined in Turkey (then called Anatolia) according to silver historians. Anatolia became the major source of silver for east witch is Greece now. Most of the silver craftsmen centered in Asia Minor, Greek islands and mainland Greece. Around 2500 B.C cupellation processing techniques was developed to extract silver from lead- silver ore. Later Minoan and Mycenaean cultures explored the silver deposits witch is now Armenia. After 1200 B.C with vanished Minoan and Mycenaean civilization mines of Laurium (near Athens) became main source of silver. With flourishing Greek civilization the silver trade expanded from North Africa to Asia. The Laurium mines are highly productive it is estimated from old mine dumps and ancient writings Laurium mines produced one million troy ounce of silver per year for three hundred years from 600 B.C to 300 B.C. It became the main source of silver for the world. There is limited production of silver in Asia Minor, Sardinia and Asia out side of Greece.
During that time Carthaginians mining silver in Spain. After the war between Greeks and Carthaginians, Greeks became the explorers of Spanish silver. Later Greeks extended their exploration to all of Europe. Even though Spanish mines became main source of silver for nearly one thousand years. There is brief period production of silver was disrupted due to Moorish conquest of Spain in 8th century A.D. The Spanish silver served as an exchange for Asian spices for Roman Empire besides domestic needs. With ballooning trade requirements Asia Manor and Italy were explored for new silver mines by Greeks. With Moorish invasion of Spain silver exploration moved to central Europe. Several major silver ore mines discovered in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Eastern Europe. It is estimated 1.5 million troy ounces of silver mined each year until 500 A.D. With the increasing technology and mining locations the production was increased after 1000 A.D.
New mining locations dramatically increased all over the world with trade expanding from Europe, Asia and Africa. Silver and gold became a standard for exchanging goods between nations and people with different cultures and languages.
With the discovery of new world (Americas) silver mines of new world became the largest producers of silver. Developments in new technology, mercury amalgamation process became choice for silver processing. Bolivia and Mexico became the biggest producers of silver. It is estimated from old Spanish records Bolivia produced one billion troy ounces silver and Mexico produced one and half billion troy ounces of silver between 1500A.D to 1800A.D. Peru is another country witch produced three million troy ounces of silver each year from 1600A.D to 1800 A.D. During 1500 and 1800 Mexico, Bolivia and Peru are producing 85% of world production of silver, remaining silver coming from Europe and other places. In 1850 with discovery of Comstock Lode mine in Nevada U.S became one of the leading producers of silver. World wide production of silver dramatically increases from 40 million ounces in 1850 to 80 million ounces in 1870.
Technological innovations and exploitations of new areas between 1870 and 1900 lead to a dramatic increase in production of silver witch had reached to 120 million troy ounces per year. U.S production of silver increased
during this period with discovery of several new mines in Utah and Colorado. With more new silver discoveries in Australia, Central America, Canada and Africa the total world production of silver reached 190 million ounces per year between 1900 and 1920. During this period the drilling, hauling and mine dewatering technologies dramatically improved. Large quintiles of ore were extracted from mines in short time. Fuming technique was invented to separate silver from zinc economically. Fuming helped to separate precious metal from moderate grade or low grade ore witch was previously not considered for processing for economical reasons. Twenty years production of silver between 1900 and 1920 exceeded the 4000 years total production of silver between 3000 B.C and 1000 A.D.
High grade silver ore was depleted by end of 19th century. Different technologies developed to increase the production. The latest techniques include bulk mining witch allows to mine on surface and under the surface for cheap base metal ore with a by product of silver. Extraction techniques such as separating base metal concentrate from ore called refinement. Improved ore separation techniques called forth flotation allowing separation of zinc and copper from silver. Electro refining techniques mostly used in refineries, this process allows to separate silver and base metals from slims of refinery easily. With ever increasing world demand the
mining for base metals dramatically increased in recent period. Silver residue from base metals ultimately refined to fine silver witch is the main source of silver production now.
Silver is a form of exchange in ancient times. In 6th century B.C silver was stamped as official coinage by king of Lydia. The Spanish used 0.8oz (25 grams approximately) silver coins were made from silver mined at Peru and Mexico. These coins were used throughout Americas witch is called Spanish Reales. The Austrians struck an estimated 400 million 0.8 oz silver coins for international trade in 18th century.
Alexander Hamilton US secretary of treasury adopted gold and silver based monetary system in 1792. Silver became US coin metal until supply of silver could not meet the demand for coins and the value of silver fell below the value of the coin. From 1965 US dimes and quarters does not have any silver content and half dollar coins have only 40% silver. Mexico is the only country still has silver content in its coins. Many treasuries and government mints struck pure silver (99.9%) coins for nominal face value witch they charge small premium over the current market price. U.S mint issued around 170 million $1 face value pure silver one ounce coins since 1986. Canada and Australia are the two other leading countries.
In modern era silver is not only a precious metal it became an industrial metal. You may be surprised to know more silver used in industrial sector than jewelry and silverware combined each year. In 2007 nearly 800 million troy ounces of silver produced all over the world. More than 55% of silver production used for industrial purpose, 16% used in photographic industry for films, only 20% of word silver production was used in jewelry and 7.5% used to make silverware.
What makes silver so popular in modern industrial era?
Silver have combined special characters than any other metals and unique properties including its strength, ductility and malleability. Silver has very high reflectance of light and ability to endure high temperatures. Silver is one of the best metals for thermal and electrical conductivity.
Silver has highest thermal conductivity than any other metal and highest electrical conductivity of any elements. No wonder silver became choice of metal for electrical distribution in power lines. All over the word electrical power drives and distribution of power depends on silver contacts or silver plated contacts. You will find silver in electrical switches and circuits breakers at your home. Silver contacts in switch panels, machine control panels, railway and street traffic controls and elevators became standard now. Silver has better performance than any other material at high temperatures. Silver oxide/ zinc batteries are used in oil wells for dependable power supply to power the instruments where the temperature reaches high levels. Air crafts and submarines use silver batteries where weight is critical. Photographic film, x-ray films have silver in it. World wide every year more than 120 million troy ounces of silver used for photographic purpose.
In millions of water filters silver is the key to prevent algae and bacteria build up in the filters. The catalytic action of silver with oxygen provides natural sanitizer to prevent bacteria witch can eliminate use of corrosive chlorine to clean the filters. The latest use of silver is invisible coating of silver on double panel thermal windows. These special panels marketed as “low E Squared”. These panels reject 90% to 95% of hot rays from outside at the same time keeping the internal house temperature inward creating energy savings. Now using silver in house hold refrigerators and air-conditions became new trend with manufacturers. They call it nano (nano means one billionth of thickness) technology. Refrigerator trays, tubes and filters are applied with 1 to 100 nano meter thick silver coating. These naon partial of coating penetrates cell walls of bacteria and viruses to disrupts the structure witch can cause odors and fungus. In air-conditions nano partials of silver used where the water is condensed to prevent harmful bacteria.
Steel has poor coefficient of friction reducing the performance of ball bearings. Silver is electroplated in steel bearings between the steel balls and housing to increase the performance and longevity. Despite high internal temperatures silver coated bearings have high performance and margin of safety in highly critical heavy machinery and jet engines. Silver coated bearings have great fatigue strength and load carrying capacity. Even the lubricating pump fails silver plated bearings allows enough lubrication until the engine shut-down safely before any serious damage occurs.
Silver another industrial use is brazing and soldering, it is a process of joining two metals at above 600 degrees Celsius called brazing below 600 degrees Celsius called soldering. Silver brazing is widely used in air-conditioning, refrigeration, automobiles and aerospace. It is a smooth process of combining two metals without leaks and corrosion. Soldering is done on any metals including copper pipes with silver/tin eliminating harmful lead use in household plumbing. Silver soldering provides antibacterial action naturally to the copper pipes. For the same reason faucet manufactures used silver based soldering in their high-end faucets. Refrigerator and air-condition manufactures use silver based soldering and brazing to provide ductility to the joints in constantly temperature changing environments. The European Union banned use of mercury, lead, cadmium and hexavalent chromium in soldering electrical and electronic equipment by passing RoHS law (restriction on use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment). This law bans all electrical and electronic products containing more than a trace of hazardous metals. Then manufacturers quickly moved to tin/silver based soldering which is a safer alternative. Even this law applies only to European Union most of the world electrical and electronic equipment soldering now done with tin/silver based metals.
Silver has excellent catalysts properties. Catalysts property means allowing or helping chemical process. The good example for catalysts property is heat, which allows raw food to change its chemical properties while cooking and baking. The same applies to silver in industrial process.
Two of widely produced components from silver are ethylene oxide and formaldehyde chemicals. It is estimated 22 million troy ounces of silver used for this purpose every year. Ethylene oxide and formaldehyde both are crucial to make plastics we use every day. Ethylene oxide makes plastics flexible. Flexible plastics are used in making rain coats, clothing such as polyester textile and specialty fabrics. This also used in molded plastic items such as car steering, insulating handles for cookware, computer key boards, pens, control knobs on electrical and cooking appliances and many more to name. Around one fourth of Ethylene oxide used in making antifreeze coolant for automobiles.
Formaldehyde chemical produced from Methanol base. Formaldehyde makes plastics harder. It is widely used in adhesives which dries faster and stay hard. Formaldehyde used in bonding glue for plywood, partial board. Plastics made of Formaldehyde chemical are resistant to heat and scratches. These plastics are used on the surface of appliances, knobs, toys, packing material and laptop computer to name few. Button casting done from these plastics also.
It is surprising to know how deeply silver got in to our lives. Hard to believe common objects we use every day contains a small partial of silver. When we drive a car, use a computer, switch on a light bulb, children toys, your plumbing, air-condition, refrigerator, heater, cooking stove contains silver partials..
Since ancient time’s humans knew liquids kept in silver vessels stay fresh for longer periods. From Roman time sailors kept water, vinegar and wine in the vessels made of silver during their long voyage to other continents. The liquids lasted for months giving them ability to travel long distances for trade without making stops for water at unknown territories. The latest scientific discoveries proved how simply this magical white metal works. Silver has the ability to interrupt the bacteria cells which form bonds for survival. These bonds are essential for physical structure of bacteria which disrupted with silver presence. Humans and animals have thick layer of cell walls which is not disrupted by silver and is harmless to humans and animals.
Silver became biocide (any chemical kills’ life by poisoning) in hospital and health care facilities. Silver overcomes methicillin-resistent Staphylococcus aures which is also called MRSA a life threatening germ. MRSA also called super bug because of it’s resistance to chemicals and antibiotics. Some hospitals now use catheters, surgical tools, and needles, stethoscopes even counters made of silver or coated with silver. In burns and wounds silver ions prevents infections, silver coated bandages help to prevent infections and focus body energy on fighting with bacteria. When you look at transition lens eye glasses silver is the main component which reduces the light transition to 25% in less than a minute giving flexibility. Silver halide crystals melted in to the glasses prevents ultraviolet rays. One in seven eye glasses sold USA now use silver for this reason.
Food and beverage industry widely use silver coated tables and instruments which can prevent growth of bacteria, fungus and germs. Silver ions mixed paints are available in the market to keep fungus out of structures surfaces. Some jails inmate toilets, showers and doors are coated with silver ions to prevent the deceases from spreading.
Most of us know
silver as jewelry metal or investment metal. Silver helps to run jet engines, heavy machines, protect us from harmful bacteria, make plastics flexible and many more.