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Home / Articles / Silver

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   Silver  is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (Latin: argentum). A soft white lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity for a metal, and occurs as a free metal, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a by-product of copper, gold, lead, and zinc mining.
   Silver has been known since antiquity. It has long been valued as a precious metal and used in currency, ornaments and jewelry, as well as utensils (hence the term silverware). Today, it is also used in photographic film, electrical contacts, and mirrors. Elemental silver is also used to catalyze chemical reactions.
   Silver has certain antimicrobial activity. In the past, dilute solutions of silver nitrate were used as disinfectants, though this has been supplanted by other treatments. In alternative medicine, there has been increasing interest in the use of colloidal silver as remedies for a wide range of ailments, though these claims are disputed. The consumption of large amounts of silver can lead to a darkening of the skin known as argyria.

Notable characteristics

Silver is a very ductile and malleable (slightly harder than gold) univalent coinage metal with a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a high degree of polish. It has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals, even higher than copper, but its greater cost and tarnishability has prevented it from being widely used in place of copper for electrical purposes, though it was used in the electromagnets used for enriching uranium during World War II (mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper).
Pure silver has the highest thermal conductivity, whitest color, the highest optical reflectivity, although aluminium slightly outdoes it in parts of the visible spectrum, and is a poor reflector of ultraviolet light). Silver also has the lowest contact resistance of any metal. Silver halides are photosensitive and are remarkable for the effect of light upon them. This metal is stable in pure air and water, but does tarnish when it is exposed to ozone, hydrogen sulfide, or air containing sulfur. The most common oxidation state of silver is +1 (for example, silver nitrate, AgNO3); a few +2 (for example, silver(II) fluoride; AgF2) and +3 compounds (for example, silver(III) persulfate; Ag2(SO5)3) are also known.

History

  Silver has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in the book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated from lead as early as the 4th millennium BC.
   Silver has been used for thousands of years for ornaments and utensils, for trade, and as the basis for monetary systems. Its value as a precious metal was long considered second only to gold. In Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe, it was often more valuable than gold.
   Judas Iscariot is infamous for having, according to the New Testament, taken a bribe of thirty pieces of silver from religious leaders in Jerusalem to turn Jesus Christ over to the Romans.
   Associated with the moon, as well as with the sea and various lunar goddesses, the metal was referred to by alchemists by the name luna. One of the alchemical symbols for silver is a crescent moon with the open part on the left (see picture, left).
   The metal mercury was thought of as a kind of silver, though the two elements are chemically unrelated; its Latin and English names, hydrargyrum ("watery silver") and quicksilver, respectively, reflect this history.
In heraldry, the argent, in addition to being shown as silver (this has been shown at times with real silver in official representations), can also be shown as white. Occasionally, the word "silver" is used rather than argent; sometimes this is done across-the-board, sometimes to avoid repetition of the word "argent" in blazon.
   Europeans found a huge amount of silver in the New World in Zacatecas and Potosi, which triggered a period of inflation in Europe. The conquistador Pizarro was said to have resorted to having his horses shod with silver horseshoes due to the metal's abundance, in contrast to the relative lack of iron in Peru. Silver, which was extremely valuable in China, became a global commodity, contributing to the rise of the Spanish Empire. The rise and fall of its value affected the world market.
   The Rio de la Plata was named after silver (in Spanish, plata), and in turn lent the meaning of its name to Argentina.
   Silver mining was a driving force in the settlement of western North America, with major booms for silver and associated minerals (primarily lead) in the galena ore silver is most commonly found in. Notable "silver rushes" were in Colorado, Nevada, Cobalt, Ontario , California and the Kootenay region of British Columbia, notably in the Boundary and "Silvery Slocan". The largest silver ore deposits in the United States were discovered at the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1859. In northern Idaho the world-famous Sunshine Mine, the richest silver mine in American history, has had more than 350 million ounces of production over the past century.At the time of its closure in early 2001, the Sunshine was producing at a rate of over three million ounces of silver per year at an average grade of approximately twenty ounces per ton. The prior operator last estimated the mine reserves at 26.75 million ounces of silver, 10.36 million pounds of copper and 7.05 million pounds of lead (or approximately 28.85 million ounces of silver-equivalent), as well as an additional resource of 159.66 million ounces of silver.

Occurrence and extraction

Silver is found in native form, combined with sulfur, arsenic, antimony, or chlorine and in various ores such as argentite (Ag2S) and horn silver (AgCl). Another ore it is found in is pyrargyrite. The principal sources of silver are copper, copper-nickel, gold, lead and lead-zinc ores obtained from Canada, Mexico (historically Batopilas), Peru, Australia and the United States.
This metal can also produced during the electrolytic refining of copper and by application of the Parkes process on lead metal obtained from lead ores that contain small amounts of silver. Commercial grade fine silver is at least 99.9% pure silver and purities greater than 99.999% are available. Mexico is the world's largest silver producer. According to the Secretary of Economics of Mexico, it produced 80,120,000 troy ounces (2492 metric tons) in 2000, about 15% of the annual production of the world.

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