Silver is classified as a precious metal, due to its relative scarcity. Despite this, silver is still more plentiful, and less expensive than all other precious metals. Silver may be mined directly, or derived as a by-product of other mined metals, primarily zinc, copper, gold and lead.
Just less than one-hundred percent of silver consumed annually is used for jewelry, silverware, photography and industrial purposes. Technology is a rapidly growing sector of silver industrial use. Demand for silver covers uses as diverse as germ warfare, superconductivity, water purification and legal tender. Silver is an integral component of electronic and electrical parts, batteries, specialty bearings, solar cells and a variety of medical apparatus. The exceptional beauty of silver contributes to its desirability for ornamental purposes.
The diverse properties that make silver highly useful and ultimately prized are strength, malleability, unsurpassed thermal conductivity and reflectivity, and the ability to maintain these properties under extreme temperature variation.
