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SILVER
Silver was one of the earliest metals known to humans, and it has been considered a preciousmetal since ancient times. Silver has been used as a form of currency by more people throughouthistory than any other metal, even gold. Although it is usually found in ores with less rare metals,such as copper, lead, and zinc, silver was apparently discovered in nugget form, called nativesilver, about 4000 B.C. Silver utensils and ornaments have been found in ancient tombs of Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Persia, and Greece. In more recent times, the principaluses for silver were coinage and silverware.In 1993, worldwide production of silver from mines totaled 548.2 million ounces (15.5 billiongrams). During that year, Mexico was the world's largest producer of silver, with a total productionof 75.7 million ounces (2.1 billion grams). The United States was the second leading producer,followed by Canada, Australia, Spain, Peru, and Russia. The vast majority of the world's silver isused in industrial applications, and the United States is the leading consumer. Other topconsumers include Japan, India, and eastern European countries.
Physical Characteristics and Uses of Silver 
Silver is the whitest metallic element. It is rare, strong, corrosion resistant, and unaffected bymoisture, vegetable acids, or alkalis. Silver is also resonant, moldable, malleable, and possessesthe highest thermal and electric conductivity of any substance. The chemical symbol for silver isAg, from the Latin
argentum,
which means white and shining. Although silver does not react tomany chemicals, it does react with sulfur, which is always present in the air, even in traceamounts. The reaction causes silver to tarnish, therefore, it must be polished periodically to retainits luster.Silver possesses many special physical characteristics and qualities that make it useful in a varietyof industries. The photography industry is the biggest user of silver compounds. Silver forms themost light-sensitive salts, or halides, which are essential to developing high-quality photography.Silver has the highest electrical conductivity per unit volume of any metal, including copper, so it isused extensively in electronics. Specialized uses include switch and relay contacts for automobilecontrols and accessories, automotive window heating, and in electrodes for electrocardiograms.Silver is one of the strongest oxidants, making it an essential catalyst for the chemical processindustry. It is used in the production of adhesives, dinnerware, mylar recording tape, and manyother products. Silver is the most reflective of all metals, and is used to coat glass in mirrors. It isalso used in x-ray vacuum tubes and as material for bearings. With the highest level of thermalconductivity among metals and resistance to combustion and sparks, silver is a valuable materialfor a range of other industrial processes. The most common consumer application of silver is itsuse in jewelry. Pure silver, which would be too soft to be durable, is mixed with 5-20% copper in analloy known as sterling silver.
 
Today, a very small percentage of the world's silver is used in coinage, though silver coins were apopular form of currency until the recent past. As industrialized nations began to produce largenumbers of silver coins in the twentieth century, silver became less available, and therefore moreexpensive.
The Manufacturing Process
Silver was first obtained in sixteenth-century Mexico by a method called the patio process. Itinvolved mixing silver ore, salt, copper sulphide, and water. The resultant silver chloride was thenpicked up by adding mercury. This inefficient method was superseded by the von Patera process.In this process, ore was heated with rock salt, producing silver chloride, which was leached outwith sodium hyposulfite. Today, there are several processes used to extract silver from ores.A method called the cyanide, or heap leach, process has gained acceptance within the miningindustry because it is a low-cost way of processing lower-grade silver ores. However, the oresused in this method must have certain characteristics: the silver particles must be small; the silver must react with cyanide solutions; the silver ores must be relatively free of other mineralcontaminants and/or foreign substances that might interfere with the cyanidation process; and thesilver must be free from sulfide minerals. The idea for cyanidation actually dates back to theeighteenth century, when Spanish miners percolated acid solutions through large heaps of copper oxide ore. The process developed into its present form during the late nineteenth century. Thecyanide process is described here.
Preparing the ore
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Silver ore is crushed into pieces, usually with 1-1.5 in (2.5-3.75 cm) diameters, to make thematerial porous. Approximately 3-5 lb (1.4-2.3 kg) of lime per ton of silver ore is added tocreate an alkaline environment. The ore must be completely oxidized so the precious metalis not confined in sulfide minerals. Where fines or clays exist, the ore is agglomerated tocreate a uniform leach pile. This process consists of crushing the ore, adding cement,mixing, adding water or a cyanide solution, and curing in dry air for 24-48 hours.
 
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Broken or crushed ore is stacked on impermeable pads to eliminate the loss of the silver cyanide solution. Pad material may be asphalt, plastic, rubber sheeting, and/or clays. Thesepads are sloped in two directions to facilitate drainage and the collection of the solutions.
Adding the cyanide solution and curing
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A solution of water and sodium cyanide is added to the ore. Solutions are delivered to theheaps by sprinkler systems or methods of ponding, including ditches, injection, or seepagefrom capillaries.
Recovering the silver 
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Silver is recovered from heap leach solutions in one of several ways. Most common isMerrill-Crowe precipitation, which uses fine zinc dust to precipitate the precious metal fromthe solution. The silver precipitate is then filtered off, melted, and made into bullion bars.
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Other methods of recovery are activated carbon absorption, where solutions are pumpedthrough tanks or towers containing activated carbon, and the addition of a sodium sulfidesolution, which forms a silver precipitate. In another method, the solution is passed throughcharged resin materials which attract the silver. The recovery method is generally decidedbased on economic factors.Silver is rarely found alone, but mostly in ores which also contain lead, copper, gold, and other metals which may be commercially valuable. Silver emerges as a byproduct of processing thesemetals. To recover silver from zinc-bearing ores, the Parkes process is used. In this method, theore is heated until it becomes molten. As the mixture of metals is allowed to cool, a crust of zincand silver forms on the surface. The crust is removed, and the metals undergo a distillationprocess to remove the zinc from the silver.To extract silver from copper-containing ores, an electrolytic refining process is used. The ore isplaced in an electrolytic cell, which contains a positive electrode, or anode, and a negativeelectrode, or cathode, in an electrolyte solution. When electricity is passed through the solution,
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