World Largest Silver Mines: These days not only gold but also silver is becoming increasingly expensive. Silver is used for making jewellery, utensils and many other things. Amidst the rising price of silver, know which are the 5 largest silver mines in the world?

If we talk about silver, Penasquito mine is at the top. This mine is in the Zacatecas state of Mexico and its silver reserves reach approximately 912 million ounces. Peñasquito has two large opencast mines, Peñasco and Chile Colorado, which together form the largest opencast mine in all of Mexico. 1,30,000 tonnes of ore is processed here daily. This mine, which started in 2010, will continue to produce silver for the next 22 years. At second place is the Polkowice-Sierosowice mine of Poland. This mine is among the largest silver mines in the world with reserves of 545 million ounces of silver. Here underground mining takes place and explosive method is used to extract the ore. In 2012, 14 million ounces of silver was extracted from this mine. This mine is in the Legnica-Glogow Copper Belt of Poland and is run by a government company named KGHM. Bolivia's San Cristobal mine is also the third largest mine in the world. There are 533 million ounces of silver reserves here. It is an open mine and along with silver, lead and zinc are also found. Japanese company Sumitomo operates it. The ore is transported to a nearby plant and processed in a plant with a capacity of 40,000 tons per day.

The second largest mine in Mexico is Pitrilla, located in Durango state. As of December 2012, the mine had estimated reserves of 478.7 million ounces of silver. The project is not yet fully operational, but once operational it will be capable of producing 15 million ounces of silver annually. Here, mining will be done through open mine method and ore will be processed through flotation and leaching method. Poland's Lubin mine is also included in the top 5 in the world. There are 442 million ounces of silver here. It is an underground mine and has been operating since 1968. Room-and-pillar and hydraulic backfill methods are used for mining. About 13 million ounces of silver is produced every year.