> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 4:38 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] RoHS Solder > > That's kind of part of the scam in my opinion, we now create much more > electronic trash in the name of removing miniscule amounts of environmentally > unsafe lead from products.. > > Forget about running your new Agilent counter for 25+ years like we used to > be able to do... > > Another part of the scam is that only two companies (one a University if I > remember correctly, one a Japanese company) hold the patents to the Silver > based solder that everyone now needs to use... And according to the USGS > we are quickly running out of mineable Silver.. >
I find that hard to believe.. the use of silver in photography is rapidly dropping.. I think it used to be about a third of the total market, and now it's something like 10%. A bit of googling shows that there are something like 3300 million ounces not yet mined, but found. A chart shows existing mines producing around 200 million oz/yr, so that's 15-16 years production.. not too far into the future, I admit. The same chart showed a demand of about 800 million oz/yr (there's significant recycling of silver). But, anyway, of that 200 million oz, how much is going into lead-free solder. EPA says about 180 million pounds/yr of tin-lead solder. I think the usual formulations are 2% silver, so 3.6 million pounds/yr of silver (14.6 troy oz/lb, so 53 million oz/yr... a significant chunk, but only about 6-7% of the total world usage.. ) And those unmined reserves are based on whatever silver prices are now.. ($15-17/oz, I think) If the demand increased significantly, it might spur exploration OR, more likely, the usage of lower grade ores. Unfortunately, silver is a mineral that concentrates (unlike, say, iron), so it's not like dropping the grade by a factor of 2 leads to an increased abundance of a similar factor. However, even if the silver price doubles, it's a small part of the cost of a piece of electronics... sure, silicon is made from sand which is pretty common, but it's very expensive processing that sand to make functional dice and to put them in packages. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
