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Photo by Scottsdale Mint on Unsplash
The inner workings of a computer consist of a variety of electronic components working together to bring life to your screen, allowing you to accomplish work, play games, watch movies and surf the internet. But have you ever thought about the makings of those electronic parts and the raw materials needed to make a computer function properly?
You might be aware of the presence of copper and even gold because of their ability to conduct electricity. Still, there’s another metal you might not consider an integral part of your computer, cell phone, TV and microwave oven. That component is silver (CY: SILVER).
The Role of Silver in Technology
Of all the metals used in electronics, silver is the best conductor of electricity and heat. Not only that, but it’s more economical than gold and can become paste or flakes, printed into sheets, placed in wires and combined with other metals.
Silver plays a vital role in the function of circuit boards inside computers and is even used in the buttons of keyboards to make them work. The metal’s thermal properties are important to a computer’s cooling system, which keeps the system from overheating while expending the massive amount of energy computers need to compute.
Harnessing Power to Mine Cryptocurrency
By now, you might wonder what all this silver talk has to do with cryptocurrency. After all, Bitcoin (BTC) and Etherium (ETH) are digital currencies and don’t contain any silver. But you cannot underestimate the critical role of silver in cryptocurrencies because to acquire these digital assets; you have to mine them using computer power.
A crypto mining rig is a powerful conglomeration of many graphic processing units (GPUs) inside numerous computers that work together using tremendous power to mine. These setups run day and night, generating immense heat that needs constant cooling to continue functioning properly. And because no other metals match silver’s thermal powers, the precious metal is essential to the crypto mining process.
But to get the silver into computers, you first have to mine the metal from the ground to make it available for manufacturers to put to productive use. And for that, you need silver exploration and development companies like Lakewood Exploration Inc. (CSE: LWD).
Mining the Keys to Mining
With the recent acquisition of Silver Hammer Mining, Lakewood Exploration now owns the past-producing Silver Strand Mine located one of the world’s most prolific silver mining belts. The Coeur d’Alene Mining District in Idaho is responsible for over 1.2 billion ounces of silver production from numerous world-class mines in the area–many of which were mined to depths of over 1800 meters. Silver Strand conversely, was mined to depths of just 90 meters, suggesting to the Lakewood team that significant potential for silver discovery at depth exists.
The Lakewood team is planning an aggressive exploration program to grow the silver resources while also advancing towards near term production. Once in production, the silver extracted from the Silver Strand Mine could help to meet the demand for silver used in electronics, including for cryptocurrency mining, which is becoming increasingly ubiquitous around the world. Silver is critical to the cryptocurrency market and without companies bringing new silver resources to market, it is nearly impossible to meet the growing demand in the financial technology space.
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