The name of the mountain recalls the silver mining of bygone years. It is part of the Todtnau mining region, in which silver was mined as early as the Middle Ages. The oldest record of ore mines on the Silberberg dates to 1028. In the western, neighbouring cirque of Zimmerwinkel the Dr. Tholus Brunnen gallery was worked by the Gewerkschaft Finstergrund from 1968 until 1970 in order to extract fluorite and baryte.