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Silver is classified as a precious metal, like gold. If the silver occurs as a free element in nature, it is mineral. If it occurs as part of other minerals such as lead, copper and gold, it is non mineral.

The above answer is not entirely correct. The last sentence is not quite correct.

Silver is an element found on the periodic chart. It is a mineral when it fulfills the 4 requirements to be a mineral. Those are:

1. it has to be made by nature

2. it has to have a crystal structure

3. it has to have a chemical formula

4. it cannot be made by man or plant or animal

So even if it occurs as a part of other minerals, it is still a mineral if it occurs naturally. When silver and gold crystallize together it is called Electrum. They are both still considered minerals in this mixture.

If someone takes natural silver and melts it an lets it cool and it makes a crystal it would not be a mineral. Since it only fills 3 of the requirements to be a mineral it is no longer made by nature but by a human so it is not natural.

If the element silver combines with other elements naturally and fulfills the other 3 requirements for being a mineral it becomes an ore of silver. There are about 214 minerals that contain silver as one of its elements in the chemical formula. The most important one is called Acanthite or Argentite which is silver sulfide. It consists of 2 silver atoms which have hooked together with one sulfur atom. It is 87 percent silver by weight.

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