Short Essay on Silver in India
Silver is another precious metal produced in India. It is always mined in conjunction with copper, lead, zinc and other metals. It is valued next only to gold for making ornaments due to its softness and attractive white colour. It had been an important currency metal in several parts of the world. The industrial use of silver has increased considerably in the recent years.
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It is also used in the manufacturing of chemicals, electroplating, and photography and for colouring glass etc. The chief ore numerals of silver are agentine, stephanite, pyrargyrite and prousite.
The galena ores particularly argenti-ferous ores, contain some quantity of silver, upto 1% in some cases and the zinc lead ores of Zawar are the principal source of silver in India. The zinc and lead concentrates produced at Zawar contain 171.4 and 774.5 of silver per tonne of concentrate respectively. Silver is recovered as a by-product in India.
Production and Distribution:
Jharkhand:
Traces of silver occur associated with lead-ore in parts of Hazaribagh, Palamau, and Ranchi and Singhbhum districts.
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Himachal Pradesh:
Native silver occurs about 3 kms east of Chargaon in the Satluj valley on Bushaker but it lies on a dangerous precipice and detailed exploration is not possible without special means of access, due to the necessity of working at an altitude of about 3, 00 metres.
Silver metal is recovered as a by-product:
1. The Kolar Gold fields complex and Hutti gold mines in Karnataka, during the refining of gold.
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2. In Dhanbad, Bihar at Tundoo lead smelter of HZL from lead concentrates produced from Rajasthan.
3. In Singhbhum, Bihar at Mounbhandar smelter of HZL from lead concentrates produced from Rajasthan.
4. In Singhbhum (Jharkahand) at Mounbhandar smelter of HCL from copper slimes.
5. In Andhra Pradesh, at Vizag zinc smelter from lead concentrates produced in Andhra Pradesh. It is found also in Cuddapah, Guntur and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh.
6. In Rajasthan, at Debari Zinc smelter form zinc concentrates produced in Rajasthan. Here silver is obtained as a by product during the concentration and smelting of galena ore in Hindustan Zinc smelter.
7. Tundoo in Bihar and the HCL plant at Moubhander (Ghatsila) in Bihar produce silver as a by product from the smelting and refining of lead, zinc and copper concentrates respectively.