Notable silver rushes have taken place in Mexico, Chile, the United States (Colorado, Nevada, California, Utah), and Canada (Cobalt, Ontario, and the Kootenay district of British Columbia).
This is partly because of the other minerals usually found with it – lead, tin, copper – and the more complicated smelting process associated with it because of the chemical complexity of its ores (usually galena).
The pursuit for silver often opens up other mineral deposits for development because of the variety of other useful ores that occur with it, especially in galena, its most common natural form.
Silver mining towns typically last a few decades, with time to develop the opulence and luxury that only left the slightest traces in placer gold-fevered places such as Dawson City in the Klondike.
By contrast, "silver cities" like Aspen, Colorado, and Nelson, British Columbia, often survived as functioning economies into the era of modernization and the advent of tourism.