Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

SILVER

The conditions in regard to silver are entirely different from those of the other resources. The production of silver is not increasing, in fact, the mining of silver alone is decreasing and the reason is not because the supply is lessening, but because the price is too low to make a larger working of the mines profitable, and the supply is kept down to the level of the demand. A great number of silver mines have been closed for the last few years. The production could be greatly increased at any time to meet an increased demand.

The highest production was in 1902, but there have been only slight changes since 1895; the production being a little less than 60,000,000 ounces, or about one-third of the world's supply—Mexico being the only other great producer. In many countries with a small supply the output is growing less each year on account of the low price, and the difficulty of competing with the United States.

The states now producing the most silver are Colorado, Montana, and Utah; each of these produces about one ounce out of every five ounces mined. Most of the remainder was produced by Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and California.

Although nearly 60,000,000 ounces were mined in 1907 only one and a half million ounces were mined for the sake of the silver alone. The rest was obtained as a by-product in the mining of gold, lead, copper and zinc, or, as is often the case, it was distinctively silver ore, but could not be profitably mined unless some other ore could be obtained at the same time.

The richer regions seem to have been exhausted, and as the process of extracting the ore is expensive the lower grade ores will probably be held for several years till prices advance. A great silver region has recently been opened in northern Canada. This contains immense quantities of very rich ore, and will probably keep the price down for many years.

So the care and conservation of silver is not an important issue for the people of the present generation. As silver is now obtained largely as a by-product, there is almost no waste.

The United States sends considerably more than half of its silver to other countries, principally to India and China, which use much silver coin, but have little in the way of silver resources. The amount used at home is divided between coinage and manufacture. The quantity coined varies greatly from year to year, eight million ounces being about the average. For manufacturing, jewelry, tableware, chemicals, etc., about twenty million ounces, of which one-fifth is remelted silver, are used. The demand for silver in manufacturing has doubled since 1898, and may lead before many years to the reopening of the silver mines.