Gold is a very precious metal and silver is seen as second fiddle, but while both are seeing a huge increase in value many are wondering which will falter and see its bubble burst. The truth is no one can definitively say, but many are forecasting that gold prices will eventually drop and silver prices will be sustained.
The reasons while silver prices will continue to progress is down to its uses. Gold is not used in many applications other than for monetary and jewellery, silver however has many uses.
Traditionally silver is used in coins, photography, jewellery and silverware, but these will not keep silver from retaining its value. The reason why silver will be able to continue to command high values is because of the massive industrial uses of silver.
The industrial uses of silver are vast and continue to grow too, the reason for this is because of its versatile nature and abilities to deliver in all manner of applications.
Below you will find a few of the many reasons why industrial uses of silver are important and also why this will help sustain the price of silver for a long time to come.
Batteries
Most batteries utilise silver alloys in the design of the battery, this is usually as part of the negative charge of the battery. While the quantity of silver in batteries is small, the truth is that with millions, if not billions of batteries being made every year it is not hard to understand why silver is there for very important in producing batteries.
Bearings
Many ball bearings have a coating of silver over their steel inner core, the reason for this is that the silver coating increases the strength and load carrying capacity of the ball bearing making it last longer.
Ball bearings are used in all manner of industrial and home uses so again the requirements for silver will always be sustained in this industrial capacity.
Soldering and Brazing
Silver is used in both soldering and brazing materials to join them together. The reason why silver is used on some materials is because it offers a strong, corrosive resistant weld. This allows the fused materials to be used in even the most difficult of environments without damage.
Silver has long been held as one of the great materials for soldering and brazing because of its strength and resistance to high temperatures.
Chemicals
Silver is the major catalyst in the production of two huge industrial chemicals. This means that in the creation of these two chemicals the properties of silver is an important and integral part, without silver the process simply cannot occur.
Electronics
Silver is brilliant at conducting electricity, this means that you will find silver in small amounts in circuit boards and switches in nearly all electrical appliances you can think of from televisions to telephones.
Other new industrial uses of silver
There are also many new applications that silver is starting to be used for such as Medicinal, Water Purification and solar energy.
Silver has been proven to have anti-bacterial properties making it a very good material for use in a host of medicinal applications; this is something new and powerful.
You will find the industrial uses of silver pivotal in the creation of solar panels as silver paste is utilised in the production of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells.
The anti-bacterial powers of silver is also important in the water purification process so silver is starting to be used as a great material in purifying water and stopping bacterial building up.
Summary
There has been a large increase in the number of electrical appliances in the home, uses for brazing, soldering, bearings and chemicals in the business world along with new innovative applications of silver in the past decade. This increase has meant that the amount of silver used in industry alone has outweighed the amount produced for the market.
When you take this information and combine it with news that industrial uses of silver are going to increase by a third between the volumes of 487 million troy ounces used in 2010 up to an estimated 665.9 million troy ounces by 2015 you can see how important silver is.
This increase in the use of silver serves as evidence that the price of silver will stay consistent or increase further over the next few years as demand outweighs supply by a vast amount.
