Silver, the precious industrial metal

Everyone knows that silver is used in jewellery. But did you know that silver is also a very important industrial metal, including being used in low-carbon energy technologies, particlarly in solar panels? Let's discover silver, one of the most versatile metals on Earth, with Dr Taija Torvela.
This video is part of the KZbin channel ‪@ourmetallicearth‬
#silver #lead #energytransition #netzero #decarbonisation #batterymetals #geology #fieldwork #mining #minerals #exploration #metals #solarpanel

[@branni6538]

Fascinating stuff!

[@johnm2879]

These videos are really well done. Well organized and paced. I just wish she would use a lapel mic when she narrates to get rid of the "echo room" effect. It isn't bad, and her speech is very intelligible but close micing might make it even better.

[@jackprier7727]

I live in Nevada, USA (the "Silver State") whose original history was a series of supergene-enriched silver booms. There was some extra excitement some years back when CCA (chromated copper arsenate)-treated wood was being phased-out in the U.S. and possibly replaced with silver-salt-treated wood, but now organic azide-copper complexes are used for this purpose (cost)--

[@theodoroseidler7072]

Very good video. Thank you! All your videos are very interesting. My state in Brazil is well known for its plentiful ore deposits and many mining companies (like Vale). Very close to me is one of the deepest gold mines in the world (Mina de Morro Velho). Cheers!

[@ourmetallicearth]

Thanks for watching!

[@klauskarpfen9039]

There was a tiny silver mine nearby where I live hosted in "Wettersteinkalk", a sedimentary triassic calciferous rock. The ore consists of sulfides, mostly looking like pyrite, plus some greyish stuff (galena?) and the rocks are very heavy. On the surface the ore is weathered to rusty brown crusts of iron oxides. I wonder how did the ore get there? "Wettersteinkalk" is supposed to be a reef limestone - so "black smokers" depositing sulfides on the ocean floor should have been a long distance. What else might cause these sulfides deposit alongside the limestone?

[@ourmetallicearth]

I don't know the deposit you mention but that sounds like a sedimentary hosted deposit, possibly similar to the ones in Ireland. I'm going to do a video on sedimentary deposits next year!

[@mikehartman5326]

Japan is completely volcanic in origin. There are hot springs all over. but what seems to be very little gold and silver. Why would this be?

[@ourmetallicearth]

There are hydrothermal precious metal deposits in Japan, but they don't necessarily form in hot springs, and not all hot springs carry metals. It depends partly on where the water is coming from because the metals typically originate from deep in the lithosphere or even the mantle, and whether the metals have been deposited elsewhere along the way. Metal deposits forming directly on Earth surface are actually quite rare in mountain belts like Japan (but common if you are in an area where the lithosphere is very thin such as in rift basins), basically because the metals have already been precipitated along the way. They will only be exposed once there is enough erosion to remove the material on top.

[@kcstafford2784]

is it true that 100%pure gold would be transparent???? i really enjoy your work thank you

[@ourmetallicearth]

Almost anything is transparent if it's made into a very thin sheet! But apart from that no it isn't.