Increasing gold prices has now become a daily news. On the contrary, everyone was surprised by the increase in the price of silver. At the beginning of this year, the price of silver even crossed Rs 2.5 lakh per kg. The people of India have a special love for gold jewellery, hence the increase in its prices is understandable, but people are not able to understand the reason for the increase in the prices of silver. In the year 2025, silver prices increased by 160 percent and in the first week of 2026 itself, silver became more expensive by 7 percent. Now many countries are making new rules regarding silver, the real reason for this is that there are many such products, the use of which has increased rapidly in the last few years.
The rapidly changing world is making different things for energy needs and many other purposes. In the last few years, the demand and consumption of things like chips and solar panels has been increasing rapidly. Due to this, the demand for many metals and minerals has increased. This has affected many countries of the world and the prices of many minerals including silver are skyrocketing. In India we know silver as a metal used in making jewelry but its uses are much more than that. Another interesting fact is that more than half of the silver being consumed worldwide is being used at the industrial level. 15% of the world’s silver is being spent just in making things related to solar energy.
How much silver is there in India?
Compared to the amount of silver being consumed in India every year, both production and availability are very less. Roughly speaking, if India needs one kilo of silver, then India has to import 800 to 900 grams of silver from other countries. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), 87 percent of the silver mines in India are in Rajasthan alone. 5 percent of the mines are in Jharkhand, 3 percent in Andhra Pradesh and only 2 percent in Karnataka. According to IBM data, India produced 609 metric tons (Rs 2562 crore) of silver in 2019-20, 705 metric tons (Rs 4266 crore) in 2020-21 and 647 metric tons (Rs 4213 crore) in 2021-22.
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This production is very low compared to the demand for silver in India. This is the reason why India is the world’s largest silver importer. According to a report by Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India is at the forefront in terms of import of silver. In the year 2024, India had imported 20 percent of the world’s silver. India imported silver worth 6.4 billion dollars i.e. about 57 thousand crore rupees in a year. At the same time, this year India exported silver products worth only Rs 4500 crore. That means exports were many times more than imports. If we look at the price, approximately 10 times the amount of silver that comes out of mining is imported from other countries.
GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava says in this regard, ‘India should recognize silver as a critical industrial and energy-transition metal and use it for clean energy. For this, India will have to make agreements for mining of silver in other countries and focus on recycling of silver locally so that imports can be reduced. Also, India will have to import silver from many places instead of a few countries.
Where and how is silver found in India?
According to the IBM report, in India, silver is directly extracted in Chanderiya in Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan and Raichur in Karnataka. There is one plant of Hindustan Zinc Limited and one plant of Hutti Gold Mines Company Limited. Silver is found as a by-product with other metals. That is, when other metals are mined and the raw material is cleaned, a little silver also comes out of it.
Of the total silver produced in India, 80 to 90 percent comes from the mines of Hindustan Zinc Limited. Hindustan Zinc Limited mainly mines lead, zinc, copper and gold and also mines silver. Apart from this, all the silver used in India is imported from other countries.
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IBM’s report shows that in the year 2021-22, there was an increase of 198% in silver imports and 4422 tonnes of silver was imported in a year. This was the time when silver consumption for solar, EV and other electronic devices had not yet picked up pace in India. In subsequent years, the consumption of silver in these things has increased manifold.
Where does India buy silver from?
The report of the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) shows that India is dependent on countries like the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Russia and Kazakhstan for silver. The largest markets for silver products in India are the United Kingdom, Switzerland and America.
According to IBM’s 2022 report, data shows that about 5.5 lakh tonnes of silver is present in mines worldwide. Peru has the largest share in this. Peru has 18%, Australia has 17%, China has 13%, Poland has 12%, Russia has 8%, Mexico has 7%, Chile has 5%, Bolivia has 4% and America has 4% of silver.
Silver running out?
Actually, the world supply of silver comes from Latin American countries. However, the mines of these countries are now becoming empty and the reserves are decreasing. Production in Mexico, which supplies 25 percent silver to the world, is also declining. Mexico’s largest San Julian mine will close by 2027, causing further concern. After Mexico, the major silver producing countries are Chile, Bolivia and Peru. The quality of silver available in these countries is not good. This means that the expenditure becomes higher in comparison to the amount of silver obtained by mining more. Due to this, supply is decreasing compared to demand. Another problem with silver is that it is not mined directly. Silver is mostly extracted along with the mining of other metals. In such a situation, its production cannot be increased much even if desired.
Now due to reduced production and continuously increasing demand, the emphasis on recycling of silver has increased. Many companies are extracting silver from old solar plates, electric vehicles and other things and recycling it. Research is also being done in many institutions on how to maximize silver recycling. ‘The Silver Institute’ says that silver recycling is increasing every year. 6 percent more silver was recycled in the year 2024 compared to the year 2023. Of the total silver supplied worldwide in the year 2023, 18 percent was obtained through recycling.
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To further promote this recycling, the Government of India last year started an incentive scheme of Rs 1500 crore under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). Through this, important minerals will be extracted from electronic waste by recycling it. This scheme will remain in force till the year 2030-31. The government hopes that this will enable about 40 tonnes of critical minerals to be recycled every year and will also provide employment opportunities to thousands of people.
What did China do with silver?
China is at the forefront in the matter of silver processing. From January to November in 2025, China exported 4600 tonnes of silver and imported only 220 tonnes of silver. Now China has slightly controlled the export of silver from January 1, 2026. According to the new rules, it is now necessary to obtain permission from the government in China to export silver. China has even released a list of companies that will be able to export tungsten, antimony and silver.
A total of 44 companies have been allowed to export silver. Only 42 companies were allowed this in 2025. Also, it has been given the status of ‘Strategic Material’. Rare earth materials are also kept in this category and similar rules apply to their export. This step of China has also started being criticized. Elon Musk had said that silver is very important for many industries, so this is not right.
In what things is silver used?
Silver is a metal with high electrical conductivity i.e. it is a better electrical conductor. In simple language it means that the current runs very fast and easily in it. In such a situation, silver is used extensively in battery devices. For example, silver is used extensively in photovoltaic cells used in solar panels, in the wiring of electric vehicles and their equipment, in charging stations, in sensors, in chargers and in the power grid as well as in many other electronic devices.
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According to The Silver Institute’s ‘World Silver Survey 2025’, in the year 2025, 59 percent of silver will be used in solar energy, EV and other electronic devices. 17 percent was used in jewellery, 4 percent in silver utensils and 24 percent in investment related items. The same survey shows that the percentage of industrial use of silver has increased rapidly in the last 8-9 years. While in 2016, 45 percent of silver was being used in solar energy, EV and other electronic devices, this has increased to 59 percent in 2025.
Let us understand this with examples. In the last few years, there has been a rapid increase in the use of electric vehicles, gadgets and computer based things. Due to lack of traditional sources of energy, a lot of investment is also being made in solar energy. In such a situation, the use of silver has increased a lot in these two sectors. 3 to 10 grams of silver is used to make one square meter size solar plate. The good thing is that due to improvement in technology it has reduced slightly. Earlier, 521 mg of silver was required for each cell of solar plate, now it has come down to 111 mg.
Apart from solar panels, silver is also being used extensively in electric vehicles. Nowadays, 25 to 50 grams of silver is used in an electric car. Now this quantity seems small but when the mathematics is done according to the number of cars, the number increases considerably. A total of 1,76,817 electric cars were sold in India in the year 2025. This number is 77 percent more than that of 2024. That means the demand for electric cars is increasing rapidly and as a result the demand for silver is also increasing.
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