Copper wires from IE aren't able to be crafted using copper plates and shears or wire cutters.

By the way, is there a proper way to get silver other than through Ex Nihilo?

Turns out it's only broken on dedicated servers, yeah. Works totally fine in singleplayer.

And I see the silver recipes now, interesting

Copper wires from IE aren't able to be crafted

What modpack version you play? There was bug that make items uncraftable in v0.34 and earlier.
Update if you have older version: https://github.com/Krutoy242/Enigmatica2Expert-Extended/releases/tag/v0.34.1

Also, do you play on a server? I just tested in single and copper wire is craftable:

proper way to get silver other than through Ex Nihilo?

Silver obtainable as sub-product when processing other OREs, mostly , or even