While much of the interest regarding precious metals is directed toward gold, silver is a metal deserving of more attention. Besides being a store of wealth, silver is also a highly usable industrial metal, used in everything from automobiles to consumer electronics (…like your computer or smartphone).
When silver is mined though, it doesn’t come out of the ground as pure silver. It usually includes other ores like lead that must be burned off.
As you can imagine, this smelting process can produce harmful emissions that must be dealt with.
But Royal Silver Company has discovered and implemented an extraction process that yields silver without harmful emissions.
Royal Silver is a company incorporated in Panama with a wholly-owned subsidiary in Bolivia. Using oxygen, water and a catalyst, the company has discovered a way to process any complex sulfide silver ore and concentrate with zero-emissions.
According to the company, quality isn’t sacrificed by the zero-emissions approach. The company in fact produces some the purest silver coins in the world, including the 1-oz Macaw and 1-oz Andean Cat. Each of these coins is .99999 pure silver. With each sale of these coins, the Royal Silver Company donates funds to help save these magnificent species from extinction.
Currently, Royal Silver’s process is in testing phase but the company is currently building a large-scale facility in Bolivia that will have the capacity to process 3 tons of ore each day.
“Our process can be used in other mining districts around the world, which is why we patented the process in the USA,” comments Brian McConnell, CEO of Royal Silver.
Operations for the company – from ore all the way to coin – occurs under one roof. This includes the smelter. In fact, the pilot smelter is located in the same building as the company’s main headquarters.
“I doubt any other CEO would put a working smelter next to his office, but my point was to show people that our process is absolutely clean,” explains McConnell.
McConnell is optimistic that the new smelting process pioneered by his company will revolutionize the way metals are produced in the 21st century.
Demand for silver has grown tremendously in the last few years, both for industrial applications and as a monetary safe-haven. According to figures from the Silver Institute, demand for silver jumped from 350 million ounces in 2001 to nearly 500 million ounces in 2010.
In the years ahead, it’s projected that over 100 million ounces of silver will used in solar-power cells.
Innovations like this new smelting process will help ensure silver (..and gold and other metals) are mined and refined in the most responsible way possible.
If anyone expresses reservation about silver bullion due to environmental concerns, point them to stories like this to show that many in the industry share these concerns and are doing everything possible to reduce the impacts of mining and refining precious metals.
