I play without killing Bonemass so I never have a Wishbone. That means I always have to find my silver the fun way. (You can find it quite easily hitting the ground with a maul and watching for unexplained 'Too hard' messages.)

In any case, over the course of my adventures, I've picked up a few hints that there is silver nearby without using the maul and they might be generally applicable:

- Silver tends to be found only in large mountains (as suggested), but really this is a matter of how high up you are. Height is not necessarily the main indicator though. The biome must be 'deep mountain' -- towards the inside of the biome and not on the edges.
- Silver tends to spawn in flat areas of just snow. I have never found the center of the silver node to be below a rock or a tree. (The edge of the silver node can be, however)
- More often than not, I see silver nodes in the flat snowy areas near log cabins. It should be possible to find them near castle ruins, but I've never found one very close.
- Rarely a silver node will poke out of the terrain (on hills), but this should only happen if the center of the node still has snow above it.