The principal ore minerals of silver are argentite, prostate, pyrargyrite, polybasite and cerargyrite. Silver is mainly used for making ornaments, table wares, vases and other articles of decoration.
It is alloyed with copper to make coins. Like gold it can be drawn into very fine wire and can be used in costly fabric and in jewellery. Silver leaves are used in high class confectionary, medicines and also as tonic. Silver is also employed in electroplating and its salts are used in photography.
Silver is a mineral of primary origin occurring in acid igneous rocks. It is found as nuggets in detritus desist, derived by the denudation of igneous rocks. A larger part of the silver is derived from the ores of lead, zinc and copper from where it is obtained as a by-product.
Production
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There have been wide fluctuations in the production of silver in the country. India produced 5,941 kg of silver in 1961 which fell down to 1,220 kg in 1966. In 1977 the total production of silver rose to 13,228 kg valued at Rs. 147.68 lakhs which increased to 40,540 kg valued at Rs. 2,714 lakhs in 1989-90. In 1996-97 the production of silver was 39,689 kg valued at Rs. 2,802 lakhs; the current (1997-98) production stood at 50,408 kg.
Regional Distribution
Andhra Pradesh is the largest producer (42.43%) of the silver in the country, followed by Bihar-Jharkhand (32.18%), Rajasthan (25.03%) and Karnataka (0.36%). The state-wise production of silver has been shown in table 17.XXVIII.
Andhra Pradesh-Andhra Pradesh accounts for 42.43 per cent of the total production of silver in the country. Here bulk of the production comes from the lead mines of Cuddapah, Guntur, and Kurnool and Vishakhapatnam districts.
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Bihar-Jharkhand-Bihar is the second largest producer of silver (32.18%) in the country. Here silver is obtained from lead and copper mines of Singhbhum, Dhanbad, Santhal Pargana (Jharkhand) and Bhagalpur (Bihar) districts.
Rajasthan-Rajasthan contributes 25.03 per cent of the total production of silver in the country. Here silver is obtained as a by-product from the smelting of galena ore in Hindustan Zinc Smelter. The silver content in the zinc and lead concentrates at Zawar varies from 171.4 to 774.5 gm per ton. The Tundoo lead smelter has an installed capacity of about 4,500 kg of silver production per year.
Karnataka-the gold deposits in Kolar and Hutti gold fields produce a small quantity of silver (about 1 gm/tonne) as by-product in the gold refining process.
Others-the lead ores of Baroda (Gujarat), Baramula (Jammu and Kashmir), Bellary (Karnataka), and Almora (Uttaranchal) contain some amount of silver. But the low content of silver has prevented their exploitation for economic use.
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Export
India exports some silver to Dubai, U.K., U.S.A., Belgium and Germany. In 1976 India exported about 1,270 kg of silver valued at Rs. 16 lakhs.