Silver rich ores

Although gold is almost always associated with silver, when the silver grade is high (> 10gr/t) and/or is present as electrum, the processing may need to be modified. The greater reactivity of silver particularly influences the behavior of gold in flotation or other process. Silver has a value of about one-hundredth that gold, but tends to occur at higher grades and therefore may be a significant source of revenue to a gold operation. The drawback is that the larger volume or mass recovered product may cause reduced gold recovery.

Native silver can occur at more than 95% purity, though this is rare and more commonly silver is associated with Au, Cu, Pb. It has similar conductive, malleable and ductile properties to gold, though has a higher reflectivity. The density of silver is 10-11 and the melting point is 960.5 oC.

Some of the world's richest silver deposits are epithermal, containing hydrothermal veins of quartz, carbonates and fluorite, often in altered tertiary rocks. The fineness of gold in epithermal deposits is low about 500-800.