How much more silver is there on Earth than gold?
Geologists estimate that silver is around 19 times more abundant than gold in the earth's crust. However, modern silver mine output worldwide is only 8 times greater than gold's by weight each year.
This discrepancy is due to several factors, including:
- Silver is often found in association with other metals, such as lead and zinc, which makes it more difficult and expensive to extract.
- Silver is used in a wider range of industrial applications than gold, which means that more of it is consumed each year.
- The price of silver is typically lower than the price of gold, which makes it less attractive to mine.
As a result of these factors, the amount of silver available above ground is less than the amount of gold available above ground.
Despite this, silver is still considered to be a valuable precious metal. It is used in a variety of applications, including jewelry, electronics, and photography.
It is also worth noting that the amount of silver and gold that is still available to be mined is unknown. There may be significant reserves of both metals that have not yet been discovered.