How silver is made
Most silver is not mined for itself. It rides along inside lead, zinc, copper and gold ores.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 11
- raw sources
- 8
- steps from the ground
- 3
The short version
Most silver is recovered as a byproduct of mining lead, zinc, copper and gold. It travels with those metals through concentration and smelting. It is then separated, for example by zinc in the Parkes process for lead, or from the anode slime left in copper refineries, and purified by electrolysis to over 99.9 percent.
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Mine the base-metal ore
Silver minerals such as acanthite occur in veins and in ore bodies that are mainly lead, zinc or copper. The silver is a modest passenger in rock mined for another metal.
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Float it with the sulfides
Crushed ore is floated to a concentrate. Silver follows the main metal, so the concentrate of copper or lead is also the concentrate of silver.
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Smelt it with its host metal
Smelting turns the concentrate into metal, and the silver stays dissolved in it. Lead bullion from ore that also contains silver carries it along.
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Strip it out of the host metal
For lead, zinc is added in the Parkes process and the silver dissolves into it. For copper, the silver is not plated onto the cathode, and it collects in a sludge below the anode, called anode slime.
Goes in -
Clean it of base metals
The silver-rich slime or zinc crust is treated with hot dilute sulfuric acid and aeration, then smelted with a lime or silica flux to drive off the remaining base metals.
Goes in -
Electrolyze to fine silver
The final purification is electrolysis in a silver nitrate solution. This gives silver of over 99.9 percent purity, and higher grades above 99.999 percent are also made.
Worth repeating
- Silver has the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and reflectivity of any metal.
- Argentina took its name from the Latin word for silver, argentum.
- Pure silver is too soft for most uses, so coins and tableware are alloyed with copper, with sterling at 925 parts per 1000.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and silver starts as these 8 raw sources.
Everything it is made of See it on the map
Open the whole family tree
Where it comes from
2025, silver mine production, out of about 26,000 tonnes worldwide.
Where it goes next
Silver feeds 13 lines directly and reaches 63 things in total.
Further down the line
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How silver is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/silver