How much silver is left in the ground?

Gold and silver are made in the explosions of supernova and widely scattered. The geologic processes and the crustal melting is how this gold and silver gets concentrated into ore bodies by the repeated melting and slow cooling of the rock. (As the rock slowly cools it allows materials to separate by density and melting point.) This results in "rich" ore bodies where the metal can be measured as a few oz per ton. In the asteroids this geologic concentrating has not occurred. So while the gold may be there, and an asteroid may have a million oz of gold in it, it may be at the rate of a few milligrams per ton of rock. Frankly mining for water and or Iron/nickel would be more profitable. And not for return to the earth but for supplying orbital stations or possibly lunar colonies. Hauling water or iron and nickel up for the earth is prohibitively expensive, but mining asteroids and shipping it to orbiting colonies or DOWN to lunar ones might be more economical than earth supply

 

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Yes you are probably right that there are silver ore sites that just aren't econonomical to mine without higher prices, but should they suddenly be economical to mine that doesn't mean they won't have to wait a few years to develop it. Either way there are variables that I think would prevent instant production increases from occurring. I also agree with your points about copper and aluminum for housing, but silver's demand is more so from computer gadgets, solar panels, nano-silver applications. This is where I do not see substitution being feasible without loss of quality.

 

Maybe they could crash the astroids into earth and then mine them.
Guy

 

Good plan! :yes:

 

I think you are drastically under valuing its uses.

Its NEEDED in triage bandages especially for burn victims.

Electronics its needed or at least drastically preferred.

Solar panels its NEEDED.

All three of those the silver is consumed too. There are plenty more silver uses but those are three very big modern ones that will last for quite a long time.

 

I read on the internet that the "smart dinosaurs", the velociraptors, were working on that very plan.....

What? I thought everything you read on the internet was true.

 

Bandages not a big usage, you admit its just preferred in electronics, and for solar panels there is not much of a loss using a metal like copper. So, of your three examples only bandages are not replaceable. at a price.

Personally I would have went with catalysts. They are less price sensitive to silver prices, so they would be one of the last industrial uses to get priced out of the market.

Btw, I know I sound negative, its just it seems I get pushed into being the bad guy in these arguments. I personally love silver, have owned it most of my life. and the current prices I feel are vindicating my love and faith in the metal. I just feel sometimes the optimism can get too steep, as well as pessimism, so I simply am trying to keep an even keel. I hope I do not offend anyone with my positions.

Chris

 

This plan might get more than a few people worked up. Even small asteroids that are big enough to survive travel through the atmosphere (either burn up or break up) and with enough mass to make this worthwhile, would hit the ground with the explosive force approaching that of an nuclear bomb. Imagine those who would quickly see the weapons potential of such technology. Of course there is also the small issue of these things deciding to come down in unpredictable manners.

 

Sorry wasn't reply to you.

 

But with those instances where yes they can be replaced along with many other uses that were not mentioned its not a equal replacement.

In the use of high end electronics it would be the equivalent of wanting to put 2 cylinder honda civic motors in a Lamborgini to cut costs. Sure you can do that and ya itll save you lots of money, but it will be a big performance drop.

Even triage bandages dont "need" silver. It just makes them much more efficient and sterile.

While in most even very close to all uses for silver a worse substitute can probably be had, it will have its downsides and the downsides may just be too great for many industries to adopt the practice of cheaper substitutes.

But to me the biggest upside is just how quickly we do use silver in the industrial world. and how fast the currently overflowing backstock has been dissipating over the past 150 years or so. Without drastic mining endeavors a bottleneck will happen a few years down the line. Yes eventually mining operations will get back on track and mine an amount equal to or more than what is consumed. But, that will take time to happen and in the interm the market will break away from artificial paper prices.

 

I don't think that I would be counting silver use in electronics as adding much to silver demand. The primary use for silver is in a mixture to replace the traditional tin/lead mix used to solder components. Some countries have banned the use of tin/lead, (EU) so another substitute is used and it contains a minuscule amount of silver. Tin/lead is still widely used however. The primary metals used in electronics are copper, aluminum and ironically gold. Beyond it not being hazardous like lead, there isn't any other particular reason to use silver in electronics and I guess we will see how far the environmental Nazis are able to push this as there are no bans on car batteries which contain 1000s of times more lead in them.

 

silver has the best conductivity out of any element...

 

Yea, I thought that comment was a little funny too. For electrical devices, nothing beats silver for conductivity. Gold is only really used due to corrosion resistance. Luckily for consumers, though, the dropoff between silver and copper is not that great, so copper is freely substitutable with not much affect except for the most sensitive applications. For very high end or extremely tiny amounts silver probably will always be used. For any other application, though, I would find silver vulnerable to be swapped out for copper at a certain price.

 

Geez, it's hard to be sarcastic around this place. It's obviously not a good idea. I go right by Meteor Crater every day at work and see a 200 feet deep, one mile wide hole caused by a rock the size of a Volkswagon bug that vaporized everything within a ten mile radius and blew apart everything else for nearly 100 miles beyond that. Besides, its hardly a new idea...Peter Hamilton has been hurtling meteors at planets for decades as a weapon in his sci-fi novels.
Guy

 

You got that right. [some] People don't understand posting genre.

 

The closest satire indicator for forums is to use the false [SARCASM] .... statements [/SARCASM] markers, or the
emoticon that we have available.

By the way, the silver used in bandages are in the range of "nano" size particles and the bandages aren't commonly changed for the 7 or so days the silver is effective as contamination could occur. Their expense tends to prohibit their usage in all except extensive skin loss/damage. Although I do not know what their manufacturing losses are , most likely any medium coin store could supply their actual silver needs. The manufacturing and processing and the patent rights is what makes them more expensive. I do not think they would be used in triage, as many wounds/damage ( except for burns) would be normal bandages that would be removed/replaced often during examination,treatment following a triage evaluation. IMO.

Internet sources of solar panel designs seem to to indicate a usage of about 1-2 grams of silver per sq. foot of panel when silver is used as wiring or as reflective mirroring layers.

Jim

 

Actually all of the above is true.

This was tried about 65 million years ago in an attempt to procure more silver.

For further info, please read:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/extinction/dinosaurs/asteroid.html

 

I was wondering when someone might pick up on my, (what I thought was pretty clever) post.

 

But look how well the plan worked. People simultaneously wiped out those pesky dinosaurs and got the silver at the same time. I guess folks were smarter back then.

 

This is true with pure silver. Silver tarnishes however which causes considerable electrical resistance. So unless you are making something for a vacuum, gold is superior for contacts and copper/tin/aluminium because they are much cheaper.

Electrical engineering, as with all engineering isn't about making the best, it's about making the best with as little as possible. This is why silver doesn't provide any practical benefits in electronics, except for certain regulations compliance, over other materials.