Nevada State Metal

Silver

(Ag)

Adopted in 1977.

Silver was adopted in 1977 as

Nevada's state metal.

The state metal is silver. Nevada has many minerals but silver was one of the most important in our early mining days, thousands of silver mines scatter the land of Nevada

Silver there formed strictly on the surface. Over millions of years of desert conditions, silver sulfide minerals weathered out of their volcanic host rocks and slowly turned, under the influence of rainwater, to silver chloride. The climate of Nevada concentrated this silver ore in supergene enrichments. These heavy gray crusts were often polished by dust and wind to the dull luster of a cow horn—horn silver. You could shovel it right off the ground, but once it was gone, there was nothing left beneath for the hard-rock miner.

Silver is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ag (from the traditional abbreviation from the Latin Argentum) and atomic number 47. A soft white lustrous transition metal, silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal and occurs in minerals and in free form. This metal is used in used in jewelry, tableware, coins, scientific equipment and in photographic processes. Silver tarnishes black with a surface layer of Acanthite, especially when placed in proximity to sulphorous compounds. It is primarily found as a constituent of hydrothermal veins. It is often found associated with copper. Unlike Gold it is soluble in any oxydizing mineral acid.
 

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