This is the last bit of my vacation time I am going to waste on this. Silver is generally produced as a byproduct of the production of other heavy metals (copper, lead, gold, zinc). So they don't really care how much silver is going for, as it is all gravy in terms of their bottom line. There are only a few mines out there in the world that produce silver as their primary ore. In total, of all silver production, less than 30% comes from mines that produce silver as their primary ore. Over 70% of all silver production is a byproduct of mines that exist to produce other metals. So even if silver prices fall below the approximately $17 an ounce it costs to produce, you won't see production drop sharply. As far as accounting is concerned, silver production exists to help neutralize their cost per oz to produce the primary metal. So they don't care if they lose money on production of 500,000oz of silver as long as it is taking the burden off producing that 150,000 oz of gold, or whatever other metal they're going for.
Silver mining prices don't mean jack. I'm going to bed, I've wasted enough of my knowledge here.
I'm not sure you wasted any knowledge, other than the fact that most silver mined is a by product of other ores...good job
Now Tim back to the topic at hand. I have been educating myself on silver for 4 years now. I think there is a ton of research out there. Ted Butler is a great resource on the manipulation of silver. coinflation.com and the articles they post from the various sources is a great place to find good sources on the subject, but I'm sure you have already keyed into that.
But as far as i see it is this...
1. Silver has a anti-bacterial property that no other precious metal has, we are seeing increases in silver in the medical industry.
2. Silver is the most conductive of electricity of all the metals and I'm sure you have heard about the silver in ipads and it's delay of production, cell phones, etc in the news.
3. Interesting part of #2 is that the small trace amounts of silver used in all these devices are not reclaimed in many cases or at least legally in this country (very toxic process) and not cost effective. So unlike Gold, silvers total supply shrinks annually way more than gold might in the few electronic applications that may still use gold.
4. Poor man's Gold. there is a reason it is called this. The average person can't afford a once of gold with a $80 premium on top, but can afford $20-$50 or more per ounce. This is what we are seeing now and why silver is in short supply. people are starting to wake up and get the need for some real money ie gold and silver. My LCS is busier than i have ever seen in 5 years i have been into coins.
5. GSR gold-to-silver ratio. per Wikipedia GSR in roman times was 12.5 to 1, in 1792 the US set at 15:1 and I believe it was the coin act of 1852 the us again set a GSR of 16:1. This number was set on the belief that gold is 16 times more precious than silver so obviously should be 16 times more valuable. With $1600 gold historically silver should be $100
6. Silver is heavily suppressed and manipulated...I could go on and on about this but will encourage you to do your own homework and when you do you will be convinced like a lot of us that it is not if but when. coinflation has a great article today about the gold ponzy scheme that is happening in gold and a whistle blower testifying to the largest gold bank in the world in London. trading paper gold to the tune of 100 to 1. So for every ounce of gold they posses they have sold contracts against that ounce of 100 ounces...this is staggering and also happening in the silver market.
I see only up side to this and as silver prices have been artificially pushed lower lately a lot of LCS are raising premiums to compensate low supply..best of luck!!!!
The minute you want to get out of PM's is the minute that the world banks stand up and apologize for there destructive behavior, and completely go in the opposite direction....you think that will happen...don't hold your breath/ And even then they would have to prove it to me before i would believe them.
??
