Silver Holding over $20 an ounce

Hopefully you will say that in 10 years or so. What will be the price of silver then?

 

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The US Geological Survey disagrees with you. Since silver exists in a relatively narrow band in the earth's crust, unlike gold which can be either shallow or deep, they projected that silver will be the first major metal to be virtually mined-out in a couple of decades. There will still be silver in the ground to be mined, but not in the economic quantities available today. Since silver is generally consumed unlike gold which is generally stored, this would seem to be a long term positive for the price.

At least that's their opinion.

 

I agree with you. Thank you for your comments. Some people seem to think that there will be tons of silver, forever.

 

That's the first I've heard of silver being restricted to a 'narrow band' in the Earth's crust. Silver is present as a 'by product' in a large number of the world's gold deposits, as well as in deposits of lead, zinc, copper, etc.

Where is this USGS information you refer to? I would like to see it.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't keep the link. I read a lot of things and if I tried to save all of it, there would be time for nothing else and I probably couldn't find iit after a couple of months anyway. I'm not a geologist so I can't verify any of this, but I've read in multiple places [one being a US Geological Survey] that silver generally forms in a relatively narrow band of the earth's crust, while a metal such as gold can be found at depths far below any discovery of silver. Perhaps there is a geologist at CoinTalk who can shed some light on it. But you are correct that silver is a byproduct, and there is nothing to guarantee that those other metals exist in infinite quatities either. Anyway, if the USGS thinks silver will be in short supply, I'll go with that until someone comes up with better evidence.

 

Man, unfortunatly, I only see silver rising a little more, and then dropping and settling around $16 an ounce. Could be wrong, but that's my prediction. One time I kind of hope I am wrong.

Phoenix

 

I am a geologist, which is why I raised the issue. Hydrothermal deposition of gold, silver, copper, lead, etc, is often simultaneous. No, none of them are in infinite supply, at least at conceivably economic concentrations. But as long as gold, lead, zinc, copper etc are sought after, silver will be extracted as well. Especially at today's prices.

 

Silver Prices

I personally think that we will see a steady rise in silver and all precious metals for the next few months, then I believe it will level off but only to regain its value again, I think the real time to buy silver and other precious metals is during the early summer when we will most likely see a drop in the prices of metals, then a recovery of where it was before.

 

In that case you obviously know more about it than I do. But I've read from more than one source that silver generally exists only at shallow-to-moderate depths compared to other metals, making it easier to find and extract, and this partly accounts for the forecast that there is probably less silver remaining to be mined than any other major metal. Most of the large deposits have already been mined. If it is true, it won't come into play in the near future, but is a long term factor in favor of higher future prices.

We'll see how it goes. As a byproduct, higher prices won't automatically result in increased supply.

 

Silver has intrinsic value like gold but there is a lot more of it.

Gold is more interesting. Did you know that only 2000 tons of gold are mined a year while the annual demand is 3000 tons. All the gold ever mined, assuming none has been lost to time, comes to 145,000 tons, which, if in one piece, comes to a cube it would fit easilly in one oil tanker. In fact it would fit in a cube about 19 meters on a side, about the size of a 5 story buliding.

Gold is truely rare.

 

On the other hand, I've read [but can't confirm] that there are an estimated 5 billion ounces of gold above ground, but only about 1 billion ounces of silver above ground. Silver exists in nature in greater quantities than gold, but silver is consumed while gold generally is not. The whole gold vs silver situation is pretty complex. It seems probable that silver has the potential to rise in price more in percentage terms than gold.

 

everything you ever wanted to know about silver...

http://minerals.er.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/silver/

-steve

 

Says it all..no shortages yet but both gold and silver are pretty rare.

 

It's difficult to interpret all of the data. It appears that annual consumption is rising faster than mine production in most years. Price increases support that conclusion. The only certainty is that this can't continue forever.