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DMN Silver Facts: History of Silver

A major watershed of silver production was the discovery of the New World in 1492, after which time major silver mines in Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru were opened leading to a rapid rise in the annual world production of silver. This rise, coupled with improved techniques for extracting silver from ore, broadened both the quality and quantity of ore that could be exploited. Later improvements, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, vastly enhanced the base of silver production and accelerated the exploitation of silver as a byproduct of base-metal mining.

Only about 25 percent of cumulative world silver production occurred before the 1770s. Records remain somewhat incomplete for the periods before 1900, however they play a critical part in determining cumulative historical production. To learn more, select from the following periods of time. Material adapted in part from the Silver Institute's Stocks of Silver Around the World publication.

Silver as an Element

Names:
English: Silver
French: Argent
German: Silber
Italian: Argento
Latin: Argentum
Spanish: Plata

Basic Information:
Symbol: Ag
Atomic number: 47
Group number: 11
Mass: 107.868
Density @ 293 K: 10.5 g/cm3
Atomic volume: 10.3 cm3/mol
Melting Point: 961.93 C (1235.1 K)
Boiling Point: 2212 C (2428 K)
Heat of fusion: 11.30 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization: 250.580 kJ/mol
Number of Protons/Electrons: 47
Number of neutrons: 61
Classification: Transition Metal
Crystal Structure: Face-centered Cubic
Color: silver
Hardness: 3.25 mohs
Characteristics: soft, ductile, tarnishes

Structure of atom:
Number of shells: 5

Atom arrangement:

Minimum oxidation state: 0 (silver occurs naturally in ores in its elemental state)
Maximum oxidation state: 3 (the unit cell of silver oxide, Ag 4O 4, has two atoms of univalent silver and two atoms of trivalent silver)

Half Lives:

Energies:
1st ionization energy: 731 kJ/mole
Electronegativity: 1.93
2nd ionization energy: 2073.5 kJ/mole
Electron affinity: 125.6 kJ/mole
3rd ionization energy: 3360.6 kJ/mole
Specific heat: 0.235 J/gK
Heat atomization: 284 kJ/mole atoms

Reactions:
With air: mild, =>Ag2O
With 6M HCl: none
With 6M HCl: none
With 15M HNO3: mild, =>AgNO3

Other Forms:
number of isotopes: 2
hydride(s): none
oxide(s): Ag2O
chloride(s): AgCl

Radius:
ionic radius (2- ion): pm
ionic radius (1- ion): pm
atomic radius: 144 pm
ionic radius (1+ ion): 129 pm
ionic radius (2+ ion): 108 pm
ionic radius (3+ ion): 89 pm

Conductivity:
Thermal conductivity: 429 J/m-sec-degC
Electrical conductivity: 630.5 1/mohm-cm
Electrical resistivity: 1.467 X 10 -8 ohms-m (O oC)
Polarizability: 7.9 A^3